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Libyan hospitals face dire shortages |
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| Posted on 2nd October, 2011 | Back to news home | |
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Libyan hospitals face dire shortages
People wounded in fighting in Libya's besieged city of Sirte are dying on the operating table because of shortage of medical supplies. Aid workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) who brought medical supplies into Sirte on Saturday could not reach the hospital because of shooting. Fuel for the hospital generator has also run out, medical workers fleeing a worsening humanitarian crisis in the city said on Sunday. The birth-place of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Sirte, is one of two towns still holding out against the country's new rulers. Civilians are caught in the middle of fierce fighting now in its third week. Ceasefire The interim government, or National Transitional Council (NTC), declared a two-day truce to allow civilians to escape, but people emerging from the city said they knew nothing of the ceasefire, and that the shooting had not stopped. "It's a catastrophe. Patients are dying every day for need of oxygen", said Mohammed Shnaq, a biochemist at the hospital who fled early on Sunday during a lull in the shooting. Reuters/Iheanacho |
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