Libya: facts and figures, January – September 2012

Visiting detainees

• ICRC delegates visited 770 detainees during 158 visits to 75 different places of detention (including holding centres for irregular migrants), which between them had held more than 11,100 people (though not all at the same time). An ICRC doctor participated in 30 visits.
• Nearly 4,000 detainees received such essential supplies as hygiene articles, mattresses, buckets, clothing, slippers and recreational items.

Restoring and maintaining contact between family members

• Nearly 2,300 people contacted the ICRC delegation by phone or in person to request humanitarian services.
• A total of 462 new tracing requests were made during the reporting period, some of which involved allegations of arrest. More than 600 cases that had been pending were resolved, in most cases without any action by the ICRC. By the end of August, 1,510 tracing requests were still pending.
• The ICRC arranged for separated family members to make over 750 phone calls and for them to exchange some 275 Red Cross messages.
• Nearly 375 migrants in a holding centre in Benghazi were able to contact their families in 19 countries by telephone through the joint efforts of the Libyan Red Crescent and the ICRC.
• Almost 330 foreign detainees visited by the ICRC were notified, at their request, to their countries' consular representations in Libya.

Accounting for missing persons

The ICRC:

• made recommendations on forensic matters to the Libyan authorities after joint assessments of gravesites in Asaba, Ras Lanuf, Sirte and Wadi Rabia;
• held four training workshops on forensic procedures for field teams and senior officials of the Ministry for the Affairs of Martyrs' Families and Missing Persons.

Water and habitat

The ICRC:

• provided emergency assistance to local water boards in Kikla, Sabha and Al-Kufrah serving up to 4,300 internally displaced people and residents affected by clashes;
• donated equipment not available on the local market to water boards in Benghazi, Al-Kufrah and Misrata serving more than 100,000 people;
• provided sewage pumps in Ajdabiya, benefiting 75,000 people;
• supplied water boards in Kikla and Gharyan with the equipment needed to restore the water supply in those areas;
• helped the Libyan Red Crescent provide insulation for shelters in a camp in Benghazi accommodating 2,000 displaced people;
• improved the water supply in holding centres in Gharyan, Benghazi (Ganfouda centre) and Murzuq by installing tanks for the proper storage of clean drinking water and reconnecting those centres to the main city water supply network;
• provided a one-month supply of hygiene items to the same centres, benefiting about 2,500 migrants;
• finished rebuilding a damaged section of Al-Kwayfiyah prison in Benghazi, improving living conditions for the more than 200 inmates.

Emergency relief

The ICRC:

• provided food and other aid for over 45,500 displaced people in the following areas: Kufra, Rubiyana, Jalo and Ajdabiya, the Nefusa mountains, Tarhuna, Misrata, Dirj, Bani Walid, Wadi Mardoum, ZamZam, Gerarat Al-Qataf, Karrarim and Tripoli;
• supplied over 3,000 migrants held in southern Libya with food and other essential items;
• made 10,000 hygiene parcels available to the Libyan Red Crescent in Tripoli, Misrata, Sabha and Benghazi for onward distribution in emergencies;
• provided training in emergency assessment and relief work for 35 Libyan Red Crescent volunteers and staff.

Health care and first aid

• The ICRC provided emergency medical supplies for 52 health facilities, including enough materials to treat 300 weapon-wounded patients, triage equipment, first-aid items, wound-dressing materials, emergency drugs, body bags and drugs for the treatment of chronic illnesses in Al-Urban in response to acute shortages.
• Following clashes in Zwara, Jmeil, Ragdaline, Sgeiga, Mizdah, Ghadamis, Kufra, Brak and Bani-Walid that resulted in the death of more than 250 people and in injury to over 1,200, the ICRC brought aid directly to the health facilities and ambulance services in those areas and provided them with emergency medical supplies.
• In its capacity as a neutral intermediary, the ICRC evacuated a total of 93 weapon-wounded patients from the above areas.
• Around 240 people, including 75 from the Libyan Red Crescent, attended three-day first-aid workshops.
• Eleven ICRC drivers in Tripoli attended a two-day first-aid workshop.

Clearing explosive ordnance and warning about the dangers it poses

The ICRC:

• removed close to 11,000 shells and other explosive remnants of war, plus more than 13,500 rounds of small-arms ammunition;
• trained 60 volunteers from 19 Libyan Red Crescent branches in mine-risk education.
• held a training workshop on risk education in Tripoli for 25 staff of the National Safety Board (equivalent to the civil defence in other countries).
• in conjunction with the Libyan Red Crescent, conducted risk-education activities such as presentations and the distribution of materials, reaching an estimated 30,500 people;
• arranged for the broadcasting of risk-education radio messages in areas affected by unexploded ordnance such as Al-Kufrah, Al-Jufrah, Sirte and Zwara.

Promoting international humanitarian law

The ICRC:

• held training sessions on international humanitarian law in cooperation with the Arab League in Beirut and Abu Dhabi for ten representatives of various Libyan ministries and two academics from Tripoli University;
• held a workshop on international humanitarian law and its application in Libya in Benghazi for the office of the military prosecutor in eastern Libya;
• organized a round table with the Libyan armed forces to discuss the incorporation of the rules of international humanitarian law in national legislation and in the internal regulations and manuals of the armed forces.