Pictures taken during ACT Alliance assessment of the humanitarian situation on the border between Libya and Tunisia (Photo: ACT Alliance/Church of Sweden/Sarah Harrison)
“An extremely delicate situation, and nobody knows what the next day will bring,” says Jan Schutte, team leader for the ACT Alliance in Tunisia.
While fighting intensifies between forces loyal to Col. Gaddafi and the rebels, a team from the ACT Alliance has for the last few days been working at full capacity to gain as clear an image as possible over the humanitarian situation in the border areas between Libya and Tunisia. Working in close cooperation with UNHCR and OCHA, the team has so far centred its assessment efforts in the transit camp Sousha. This camp lies close to Tunisia’s border with north-western Libya, where pro-Gaddafi forces have control.
Half a million people
Around 15,000 people, most of them migrant workers who have fled the violence inside Libya, are currently living in the camp. Given the circumstances, conditions in the camp are reasonable. The UN estimates that around half a million people may cross the border to Libya. As the conflict deepens, this number could increase to a million. If today’s situation can be used as an indicator, the majority of these are expected to be migrant workers.
”Work is underway to prepare the Sousha camp for as many as 100,000 arrivals. What worries us are the unconfirmed reports that claim that tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of people are currently camped in informal settlements on the Libyan side of the border. If these people were to cross the border, the situation here would change in a very short period of time,” says Schutte.
The ACT team, which participates in daily coordination meetings with the UN system, is made up of experts within water and sanitation, emergency response, and psychosocial activities. So far, the ACT team has been impressed by the solidarity Tunisians are showing for the many people that are crossing from Libya into their country.
Great solidarity
”People are arriving in the border areas, their arms full of blankets, food and cooking utensils. It is moving to experience at first hand the support these people are showing,” says water and sanitation coordinator Manfed Arlt.
The ACT team is following developments in war-torn Libya, and is currently planning the ways in which a coordinated response by the ACT Alliance would, if necessary, be able to provide the best possible assistance to people in these vulnerable border areas.
”ACT and the entire UN system must be prepared for a worst-case scenario in which hundreds of thousands of people find themselves forced to flee from a full-blown civil war in Libya. We are now working on several possible scenarios, and planning how a coordinated response from the ACT Alliance would give the best results within our areas of core competency,” says Jan Schutte, ACT Alliance team leader in Tunisia.
In Tunisia/Libya - contact:
- Arne Grieg Riisnæs, communicator for NCA/ACT Alliance, tel. +47 932 50 257 / + 882-1651-075612 (satellite telephone)
- Manfred Arlt, WASH expert for NCA/ACT Alliance, tel. +47 936 37 798 / + 882-1667-001270 (satellite telephone)