AFRICA/LIBYA – Foreign staff on the run from a looted hospital; health care system collapsing

Benghazi (Agenzia Fides) - The clashes in Benghazi, capital of Cyrenaica, between Islamist militiamen and soldiers loyal to General Khalifa Haftar are causing serious damage to the local health system. The Libyan press reports that the hospital in Hawari has been abandoned and its expensive medical equipment have been stolen. The Indian government has ordered the repatriation, via Tunisia, of 38 nurses of Indian nationality who worked in the hospitals in Benghazi. In the capital of Cyrenaica the only hospitals still open are the Benghazi Medical Centre and the Jalaa Hospital.
Among nurses, both in Cyrenaica and Tripolitania, there is a strong presence of Catholics (in particular Filipinos) and until the beginning of 2013 even Catholic nuns. His Exc. Mgr. Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli told Agenzia Fides that most of the religious congregations were forced to leave Cyrenaica because of strong pressures and threats received (see Fides 1/31/2013).
Meanwhile the clash between the two governments, one in Tripoli and the other in Tobruk, involves the different militiamen present in all areas of Libya. Yesterday, December 18, military sources of the government in Tobruk announced that 30 pro-Islamic militiamen of Fajr Libya were killed and 270 wounded in the clashes around the oil-rich area between Sirte and Benghazi. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 19/12/2014)