Fear and uncertainty haunt shelter near the front line in Libya

Sadness and fear are engraved on the faces of those who are queuing for food near the front lines of the fighting raging in the suburbs of the Libyan capital.

Fatma al-Naami, a 49-year-old widow who has just lost her only child after bombing her house, is among the people who sought refuge in a city hall.

"My son died because of this dirty war," she says, unable to contain her tears when she tells how he was hit by a burst of shrapnel and died as a result of her two wounds. days later.

"I feel like I can not go on alone … I feel like an undead," said Naami, who lost her husband to illness.

Not far from her, in the small garden of the town hall of Ain Zara, a group of children seems to have kept his mind careless.

Mahmoud, 12, plays with his new friends who have also fled the fighting south of the vast suburb dotted with farms.

With his parents, he had to leave his house in nearby Al-Keheli in the middle of the fighting that has lasted nearly two weeks.

They are among the latest victims of violence in this North African country plunged into chaos since the overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi by NATO-backed forces in 2011.

Violent clashes

Since April 4, gunfire and explosions have rocked the southern suburbs of Tripoli, amid attacks by strong man Khalifa Haftar and his so-called Libyan National Army (LNA).

The forces of the nationally-recognized Government of National Unity (GNA), based in the capital, are rebuffed against its offensive.

Some of the most violent fighting has rocked the outskirts of Ain Zara, about ten kilometers south of central Tripoli, a region where rampant urbanization has eaten away at farmland.

According to the World Health Organization, a total of 189 people were killed and more than 800 injured in clashes, including many civilians.

More than 18,000 internally displaced persons – including 7,000 from Ain Zara – had to seek refuge with relatives or in shelters, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. United Nations.

"I left home a week ago with my wife and my son Mohamad," said one of them, Abdessalam, to AFP. "The fighting has become so violent that we have not slept for days."

Abdessalam said that he was "lucky" to have found refuge in a university residence near the town hall.

"Other large families sometimes gather seven people in a room," he said.

"Children are suffering from trauma"

Faced with the influx of displaced people, Ain Zara Town Hall has set up a crisis committee, a food bank and a makeshift pharmacy to manage donations of food and medicine.

"We are collecting donations for displaced people, to whom we are distributing more than 1,500 baskets of family food every day," said Ain Zara Mayor Abdul Wahed Ballug.

"We have put the university residence at their disposal," he said, adding with regret that he could not accommodate more than 500 people.

Ballug lamented what he described as lack of badistance from local and international organizations.

"Is it conceivable that an international organization is giving us 10 mattresses and some products and then announcing that she has helped us?" he said.

Ballug also did not badist on behalf of the state, noting that "only businessmen and traders came to the rescue of the displaced."

Beyond humanitarian aid, those who have fled are in need of psychological help, said Intissar al-Gleb, a member of the Crisis Committee.

"The children have been traumatized, they need psychological support from specialists to help them," she said.

Meanwhile, security fears persist for those who have fled while the front line keeps moving.

Gleb said that "everything is fine so far despite the lack of government and international support to meet the growing humanitarian demand".

She added, however, that while the LNA continued its offensive, "we have emergency evacuation plans if necessary".