Jaffar Hussein, representative and head of WHO mission in Libya has said the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday has warned against repeated attacks on hospitals and medical workers in Libya.
Mr. Hussein said “WHO once again demands that all parties in the conflict respect the safety of health workers, health facilities and medical supplies, and the overall sanctity of health care”.
The Organization documented forty-one attacks against medical workers and facilities in Libya in 2018 and 2019, including six health workers and patients killed and thirty-five others injured.
The statement said the political division and the ongoing armed conflict in the country force nearly 75 percent of medical facilities in Libya to close or partially function and cause a severe shortage of medical staff, depriving thousands of people of medical services and further weaken the health system.
Oil-rich Libya has been suffering violence and political instability ever since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011.