TRIPOLI, April 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Libya’s UN-backed government says it has suspended activity at one of the main hospitals hospitals in the capital, Tripoli, which has been repeatedly targeted in bombardments.
The health authorities said the al-Khadra hospital was hit again on Thursday – the third such strike in a matter of days.
The government’s supporters have blamed the attacks on forces from eastern Libyan under the control of Gen Khalifa Haftar.
The UN’s humanitarian co-ordinator for Libya, Yacoub El Hillo, warned that the coronavirus pandemic together with the attacks on the hospital, which houses a coronavirus ward, were a deadly combination.
He described the shelling as a “clear violation of international humanitarian law”.
“The fighting parties must stop killing innocent civilians now and focus on defeating the virus,” he said.
The country officially has 24 confirmed cases of coronavirus but it has tested fewer than 400 people.
Hillo also condemned the cutting off of water supply to the capital Tripoli over the past week as “particularly reprehensible” and said it must stop immediately.
An armed group stormed a control station at Shwerif, stopping water from being pumped and threatening workers, the Great Man Made River Project, which supplies water to much of Libya, said in a statement.
The armed group is seeking to use the water cut-off as pressure to force the release of detained family members, Hillo said in a separate statement.
The supply has been cut to more than 2 million people in Tripoli and nearby towns and cities.
Tripoli, seat of the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), has been under assault for a year by the eastern-based Libyan National Army of Khalifa Haftar.
An escalation in fighting since mid-March has involved intense bombardment, particularly in the south of the city near the front lines, with projectiles hitting a hospital.
The warfare has hindered efforts to prepare Libya’s already tattered health system for an outbreak of the coronavirus, with 24 cases confirmed in the country. State efforts to slow the spread of the disease have included a curfew.
Electricity supply has also been repeatedly cut in Tripoli and some other areas over the past week.
“At this moment when Libya is fighting the threats of the COVID-19 pandemic, access to water and electricity is more than ever life saving, and such individual acts to collectively punish millions of innocent people are abhorrent and must stop immediately,” Hillo said. — NNN-AGENCIES
