Empty shelves in some shops and flocks to the markets due to fears of the spread of the new Coronavirus and Libya was no exception in that, but what makes it threatened with a greater risk is its dependence mainly on imports to secure its various needs, relying on the export of oil whose prices have collapsed and production has declined sharply since last January due to the closure of some oil fields.
The military conflict and the political division threaten Libya’s food security within the global crisis that the directors of health, nutrition and global trade organizations warned of in a joint statement attributing this crisis to the possibility of disturbances in international trade and food supply chains.
The World Food Program, which provides life-saving assistance to more than 23 million people in the Middle East, two-thirds of which in Yemen and Syria, expressed concern about food insecurity in the Middle East and North Africa region, especially in regions that have suffered from years of conflict and political instability, economic deterioration and weak health system that makes it difficult to confront the pandemic, in reference to Libya, which is suffering from intense conflicts and political division.
Warnings and appeals did not compel officials in Libya to lay out a plan to prevent this food crisis from happening or to inform people about what would happen amid the clashes and Coronavirus outbreak.
