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60k, hundreds of children displaced from Tripoli due to clashes: UNICEF

More than 60,000 people, including hundreds of children, have been displaced from Tripoli as the violence rages in the Capital, UNICEF Special Representative in Libya Abdel-Rahman Ghandour said.

Ghandour said the second charter flight by UNICEF has transported about 18 tons of emergency food and health supplies.

He added that these supplies are essential to support children and families affected by the conflict in the suburbs of the capital.

“The arrival of this assistance is part of rapid response efforts to meet the growing needs of nearly 575 affected and displaced families who are temporarily staying in shelters set up by the Crisis Committee in Tripoli,” Ghandour said.

The number of displaced families is growing rapidly; on May 4, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the number of displaced people have reached 50,000 people as a direct result of the intensifying armed conflict in Tripoli.

On April 10, the UN migration agency said there had been false reports that it suspended its operations in Libya. The IOM asserted it has not suspended activities in Tripoli and continues to support displaced populations and migrants throughout Libya.

The Libyan National Army, led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, has been leading a military campaign since early April to take over Tripoli from the UN-backed government.

The fighting has so far killed 432 people and injured nearly 2,069 others, according to the World Health Organization.

Haftar’s army is allied with the eastern-based government, as the country is politically divided between eastern and western governments.

Libya has been struggling to make a democratic transition amid insecurity and chaos ever since the fall of former leader Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.

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