Whilst attending the Humanitarian forum meeting in Cairo, I had the opportunity to visit Benghazi in Libya, the second largest city of Libya with a population of 1.2 million people. Since the uprising of 17th February 2011, this city has become the provisional capital of the interim Libyan government (Eastern Libya). I was well aware that the security situation was precarious but I found it an exciting challenge since this was a good opportunity to visit the land of Omar Mukhtar who resisted, in 1912, the Italian colonisation. It was quite obvious that the humanitarian situation in most of Eastern Libya especially Benghazi and its immediate surrounding areas needed our attention. I went in with the hope of seeing the situation with my own eyes.

Oil reserves in Libya are the largest in Africa and the ninth largest in the world. Yet the recent crisis has brought the country to a standstill with migrant workers numbering 3.5 million going into hiding or fleeing the country in fear of being caught up in the fighting. An estimated 400,000 people- many of whom are Libyans- fled the violence and crossed the borders into to Egypt, Tunisia, Niger, Chad, Sudan and Algeria. An estimated 12,000 remain at border transit camps in need of evacuation. Many trapped families uprooted from various cities are in a vulnerable situation in need of food, medicine and shelter. The UN refugee agency UNHCR warns that that thousands of people could be trapped in cities like Misrata and Brega.

We set out by road from Cairo, crossing the famous Tahrir Square, now made famous by the ‘white revolution’ early on the morning of Friday 25th March destined for Benghazi. We passed the great pyramids of Giza on our way and we were accompanied by Dr Hany El Banna, “It only takes seven hours to Salloum city bordering Libya” he quipped. Doesn’t sound too bad, I thought to myself. “Then another seven hours to Benghazi” he added. This was his second trip in the last six weeks. “I always take plenty of Egyptian peanuts when travelling long distances as peanuts are nutritious and you don’t have to make too many pit stops”. I had to agree since he is a qualified medical doctor and a well-travelled man.

I had previously travelled, with Rizwan Araf of Muslim Hands, between Amman in Jordan to Baghdad in September 2003 covering a distance of 800km. We began our journey from Amman airport at around 3.00am.  The roads were not in a good condition on the Jordanian side but were near perfect once we crossed the border into Iraq. There were plenty of check points manned by American soldiers who seemed very uncomfortable in the desert heat wearing excessive bullet proof gear. The journey was extremely exhausting.

However, this journey from Cairo to Benghazi was over 1100km by far the longest I had ever travelled by road. After several check points, we reached the Salloum border in the afternoon.

As expected, we found refugees at the border mostly from Somalia who were migrant workers from various cities in Libya fleeing the conflict zone now stranded in the ‘no mans’ land’- between the border of both countries. There were women and children in large warehouse type of buildings also used by the Egyptian immigration authorities. There were about 1500 women and children inside these buildings, in cramped conditions with hardly any space or room to manoeuvre between them. It reminded me of my experience during Hajj when on occasions I felt claustrophobic and physically under pressure with immense crowd around me.

Only the gangways were left clear for visitors seeking a visa to pass through. Keeping this space clear was a constant battle for the authorities since the small children were trying to use this space for play area. Only one male member of each family was allowed to accompany their family inside the building, the remaining adult males were expected to live and sleep outside. I asked a staff member of UNICEF about the other refugee families male members and where they slept and how they managed. He simply stated that they sleep outside. When I walked around the area, I found many hundreds of men scattered everywhere sleeping on the ground under the open sky on the blankets provided by the locals. These refugees fleeing dangers and insecurity of conflict inside Libya were looking for safety and security for themselves and their families. The Egyptian government was not allowing them onto Egyptian soil and the Somalian government was not making any provision for flying them back home, they were stranded for indefinite.

We arrived at Benghazi on the morning of 26th March and found the city quiet and almost desolate. As the day passed gradually more people appeared from their homes. The telephone systems were down and we were only able to make calls from mobile cell to people within Benghazi. There was no internet or international calls facility; barely local calls were operational intermittently. Throughout the day we managed to meet some Egyptian and Libyan doctors. We also met with many officials of the transitional committee who were trying their best to manage the turmoil, vacuum and chaos left as a result of departure of the previous regime. We were informed by the head of transitional committee that Ajdabiya, a city 160km south of Benghazi, consisting of over 100,000 populations is in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.  Ajdabiya changed hands several times between the rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces in last few days. It was also reported that due to conflict, most people had left their homes and took refuge in the surrounding areas. We were also informed that providing the Adjabiyans some humanitarian assistance would encourage the remaining families to return home. 

The following day we travelled for two hours to reach Ajdabiya to assess the humanitarian situation. The highway linking the two cities showed signs of heavy shelling and fierce fighting that had taken place. Many rocket launchers, tanks and military equipment was destroyed and scattered along the road.

The city of Ajdabiya could be described as a ghost town. We drove around the city for over an hour and found homes damaged from artillery fire. Very few residents were seen on the streets. The shops were closed and the masjids empty despite it being time of Dhuhr salah. Some volunteers from neighbouring towns were distributing some basic food like bread and water for the few that braved the dangers. We too had a long trip and had no provisions so one of our colleagues put out his hand and received three small bottles of water and half a dozen pieces of khobz (bread). We decided to pray Dhuhr at a nearby masjid, finding it locked, we prayed in the veranda. After us, entered an elderly gentleman who also came to pray. He was a little reluctant in engaging with us but eventually gave us his name. He told us that he and his family had left the city and their family home. He had just returned home today and from his body language, it was evident that he felt insecure and, I guess for that reason he had not brought his family home. Close to the masjid was a local Boy’s Scout group and there appeared to be some activity. About a dozen young men dressed in their Scout’s uniform were busy trying to distribute some basic essentials to a large queue of men. We asked them about the numbers they were serving and how they coped with the situation. Their leader by the name of Saleh told us that the numbers of needy are increasing each day and today his team is exhausted as they have been here since early morning. He also indicated that the only type of food needed has to be precooked or one that can be consumed without heating like cheese, tinned tuna, biscuits, tinned beans(Foul) and salt. There were also reports of diarrhoea and we were asked to provide washing-up detergent soap for cleaning the dishes, such items are usually overlooked in situations like this. We were also asked to provide feminine hygiene products. Another item needed was disposable nappies for babies.

We also visited the local hospital known as Mohammed Al Muqeef Hospital that has 300 beds, all occupied due to injuries. Outside the hospital there was a large crowd looking for the missing members of their families. There were photographs posted on the outside wall of the hospital of young men gone missing. The person in charge of the hospital told us they had many cases of elderly and injured persons who could not be moved from their beds and the administration was in a desperate need of adult size nappies for the elderly and disabled patients. Armed with this information we swiftly returned to Benghazi the same evening.

The following morning we purchased from the local wholesale market in Benghazi the food and other items in accordance with our list. These were loaded by Adil and our driver Hassan onto the trucks and we returned the same day to Ajdabiya Boy’s Scouts HQ for distribution. Today the town felt a lot busier as residents began returning. Again an eager volunteer group helped to off load the items at the rear entrance of the building. The news of arrival had travelled fast and before long there was a long queue outside the Boy’s Scout’s office. With the help of the scouts we quickly organised the food into a sensible food package for each family. Within moments not only did the queue became considerably long, but the people became impatient and began to knock on the door shouting for the doors to be opened. The queue was mainly of men and some boys. The scouts were extremely respectful and treated all the needy people, some of them were very agitated and angry, with dignity.  We were able to provide food parcels for about 1,000 families. This was the first time I witnessed a few women who appeared to collect the food. They were provided their share in a separate queue and they left quickly with their heads down.

We then headed for Mohammed Al Muqeef Hospital and provided them with ten days’ worth of supplies of adult nappies. The staff welcomed our support and appreciated Muslim Hands working in Libya. Our activity filled day came to an end and we headed back to Benghazi to recoup and freshen up in anticipation of making the lengthy journey back to Cairo.