Britain to send emergency aid to Libya
Cathy Newman
Presenter
Britain will help Libya’s new rulers restore basic services as they strengthen their grip on the country. But the hunt for Colonel Gaddafi continues.
Britain is providing millions of pounds in emergency aid for Libya as the rebels taking control of the country attempt to restore fuel and water supplies.
Surgical teams and medicines will be laid on to help up to 5,000 wounded, as well as enough food and household essentials for almost 690,000 people.
The £3 million of support – to be channelled through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) – comes amid reports of harrowing conditions in Tripoli.
Dozens of decomposing bodies were found piled up in the abandoned Abu Salim hospital, including 21 in one room.
There is no running water and little electricity for the city’s 2 million people.
Mahmoud Shammam, of the National Transitional Council (NTC), told a news conference in Tripoli that fuel supplies had arrived, and water and medicine were being delivered by sea from Misrata.
We are going to provide within two days the gas for cooking. Mahmoud Shammam
He said: “We have 30,000 tonnes of gasoline. We’ll start to distribute it to the public starting today. We have diesel fuel (which) will be arriving tomorrow, to support the electricity (power stations).
“Also, we are going to provide within two days the gas for cooking. And we are working hard to reactivate Zawiya refinery.”
Rebel forces now control virtually all of the capital Tripoli, with resistance petering out.
Fighting continues outside Tripoli
There is still no sign of former dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and fierce fighting continues in other parts of the country.
An advance on the former dictator’s home town of Sirte is said to have been halted outside the oil port of Ras Lanuf.
Nato planes carried out strikes in the area overnight, targeting heavy artillery, armoured vehicles and bunkers.
A house belonging to Saif al Arab, one of Gaddafi’s sons, was ransacked after being damaged by a Nato strike.
Overnight, NTC forces took the town of Gasr Ben Gashir, as well as nearby Tripoli Airport, where a passenger jet said to be Gaddafi’s private plane was found damaged and abandoned.
Rebels also swept into the town of Jmayl on Saturday, consolidating their grip on areas to the west of Tripoli after loyalists fled the home base of Libya’s prime minister.
Benin and Niger have formally recognised Libya’s rebels, breaking ranks with the African Union which said on Friday it could not recognise the rebel National Transitional Council until fighting had ended.