Geneva - Libya's interim government has asked the United Nations for fuel for ambulances to evacuate its wounded fighters from the besieged city of Sirte amid reports of heavy casualties, a UN source in Libya said on Thursday.
Desperate civilians were fleeing the coastal city, held by fighters loyal to deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi, before dawn when pro-Gaddafi forces start guarding checkpoints, the source told Reuters.
The United Nations is sending trucks of drinking water for the increasing flow of civilians crammed into vehicles on the road from Sirte, heading either towards Benghazi to the east or Misrata to the west, he said.
But fighting around the city, Gaddafi's hometown, and continuing insecurity around the Bani Walid area, the other loyalist hold-out, are preventing the world body from deploying aid workers inside, he said.
“There are two places we'd really like access to, Sirte and Ben Walid, because of concern on the impact of conflict on the civilian population,” the UN source in Tripoli, speaking by telephone on condition of anonymity, told Reuters in Geneva.
The United Nations has stocks of food and water in both Benghazi and Misrata for the displaced but many are taken care of by villagers and local councils on the way, he said.
Civilians are streaming out of Sirte, where a humanitarian disaster looms with rising casualties and shrinking supplies of water, electricity and food, aid agencies said on Wednesday.
Humanitarian partner agencies report that up to 20 000 displaced people from Sirte, a city of 100 000, now appear to be scattered in towns west of Sirte, the UN source said.
“We know battles are raging and we would like access to Sirte but nobody has been able to enter the city,” he said. “We've heard there are a lot of casualties and wounded are being sent towards Misrata.
“The displaced say there are heavy casualties in the city as both parties are using heavy weapons and mortars,” he said.
The United Nations had received reports two days ago that 171 armed NTC fighters were wounded in Sirte, he said.
“We've received a request for fuel for ambulances from the NTC to move wounded people from the frontlines westward. That gives an indication that maybe logistics are not working as effectively as they could and we need to step in with support.”
Asked about the situation in Libya, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos told Reuters during a visit to Haiti that the world body's aid branch was addressing “pockets of humanitarian needs”, especially requirements for food and fuel.
But she added: “Libya is an extremely wealthy country so I do not anticipate, in terms of the humanitarian response, that we will be there much after the end of this year”.
The International Medical Corps, a private aid group, helps run a field hospital about 50 km outside Sirte where wounded NTC fighters and civilians are treated.
“Last night and this morning there was quite a high number of patients, about 50 patients,” Edi Cosic, IMC's country director in Libya, told Reuters on Thursday.
“The patients are stabilised for air transport by helicopter to Misrata hospital where further treatment takes place,” he said on return to Tripoli from the hospital.
A small clinic nearby provides care to civilians passing through. “We have a number of women in advanced pregnancy and one delivery so far,” Cosic said.
UN officials do not have direct contact with pro-Gaddafi forces in Sirte, where both sides accuse the other of cutting off water and electricity, the UN source said. - Reuters