Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s government has promised the UN access to the besieged rebel city of Misrata, a senior UN official said yesterday, following weeks of heavy shelling of the city by Libyan government forces.
Such access is part of an agreement, reached on Sunday, to enable the UN to deliver humanitarian aid in western areas of Libya under Qaddafi’s control. The UN has already set up an aid operation in rebel-run eastern Libya.
Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim confirmed that the deal with the UN includes setting up a humanitarian corridor to Misrata, a city of 300,000 and the sole rebel holdout in Qaddafi-controlled western Libya.
Photo: Reuters
“The agreement is to provide safe passage for people to leave Misrata, to provide aid, food and medicine,” Ibrahim said late on Sunday.
The Libyan government has denied it has used heavy weapons against Misrata, where rebels are clinging to positions near the sea port, their only lifeline to the outside world.
However, residents and hospital officials in the city have described heavy shelling over the weekend, and said 17 people were killed on Sunday. UN officials said children and elderly people have been among the casualties in recent days.
The UN will have a “-humanitarian presence” in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, which is under Qaddafi’s control, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday. From Tripoli, the UN would try to expand operations with the help of the Red Cross and others, Ban said.
The UN has already set up an aid operation in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
Also yesterday, nearly 1,000 people who are among several thousand stranded in the area of Misrata’s port boarded an aid ship sent by the International Organization for Migration.
Most of the passengers were migrant workers, but also included 100 Libyans, among them 23 wounded in the fighting. The injured included a child shot in the face and an amputee, the aid group said.
The organization said at least 4,000 additional migrants are stranded in the port area, including women and children.
Yesterday, rebel fighters and Qaddafi’s forces battled for a second consecutive day around Ajdabiya, exchanging light volleys of artillery and rocket fire near the city’s western gate.
One of the rebels’ staunchest supporters is the Persian Gulf state of Qatar, which has given them diplomatic and financial backing. Late on Sunday, the leader of the rebels’ transitional government, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, arrived in Qatar, the official Qatar News Agency reported. Abdul-Jalil was met by Qatar’s foreign minister.
In Benghazi, the top rebel oil official said the rebels would not sell any additional oil until production resumes from two key fields that suffered battle damage.
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