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LIBYA: Ajdabiya Seeks Semblance of Peace

Francesca Cicardi

AJDABIYA, Libya, May 18 2011 (IPS) - Although the front line is at its gates in eastern Libya, the city of Ajdabiya is trying to get back to normal under threat of attack by the troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi and, especially, under the risk posed by unexploded ordnance in streets, gardens and houses.

Unexploded ordnance in a house in Ajdabiya.  Credit: Courtesy of the International Committee of the Red Cross

Unexploded ordnance in a house in Ajdabiya. Credit: Courtesy of the International Committee of the Red Cross

The people of Ajdabiya have gradually started returning home. Around 45 percent of the population of 160,000 has returned, but most of the city’s women and children are still taking shelter in the northeastern city of Benghazi, 160 km to the north, or other towns, because fighting is still raging just outside this city.

Ajdabiya has been caught in the crossfire between the rebels and government troops, which fought for its control in March and April.

And in recent weeks it has once again become the last frontier of the territory controlled by the opposition, as it was at the start of the uprising against long-time leader Gaddafi in late February, when eastern Libya began to rebel against Tripoli.

The last safe position for the rebels is 40 km west of Ajdabiya, and the violence has reached the city itself on a number of occasions.

Just a few days ago, Grad rockets, with a range of up to 40 kilometres, fell on the city, which had already been bombed earlier from a distance by government troops. Rebel and government forces have also fought on the streets of Ajdabiya, when the latter occupied the city in March.


Signs of the war are everywhere in the city. Many buildings are pockmarked with the scars of bullets, while others have been punctured by missiles. The overall effect is of desolation and destruction.

Musa has a shop that sells children’s clothing, but not a single customer has come through the door since he reopened 10 days ago.

“There are no customers, but I decided to come back to the shop, to give a sensation of normality,” he says.

He thinks that if Ajdabiya returns to its daily routine, people will feel safer and will start coming back, as his family plans to do this week.

Adel, who hasn’t closed his butcher shop at any point, says that in the last two weeks things have been returning to normal, and the customers who had left the city are starting to come back. “Every day some 100 people come in to buy meat,” which now costs around 10 dollars a kilo, he says.

At the Ajdabiya local council, Ali Faraj confirms that basic supplies – which are coming in mainly from Benghazi – are available, and that there is running water and electricity in every neighbourhood, although there are shortages of gasoline.

“Many families are coming back,” Faraj tells IPS, estimating that 45 percent of the population has returned so far after fleeing the violence, especially during the two-week occupation by troops loyal to Gaddafi in mid-March.

“The city is safe now: our men are guaranteeing security, both in the city centre and on the outskirts,” where defence lines have been mounted to prevent government forces from returning, Faraj says.

But these barriers are neither visible nor terribly effective: the night before, a group of Gaddafi’s men made it through the defence line to the west, and clashes occurred in one of the neighbourhoods, says a young man whose family was re-evacuated after they had returned home with the idea that they would not be uprooted again.

The local rebel authorities acknowledge that there is still a risk that government troops will reach Ajdabiya, and, above all, that they will attack again with long-range missiles from their positions in the desert.

Sharifa, a middle-aged mother of two, tells IPS she doesn’t feel it is safe to return, because “the war is still nearby.” Since the fighting broke out, she and the rest of the women in her family, along with all the children, have been living in the town of Al Beidan, 20 kilometres to the east, where they were given shelter in a house in which four families have been staying for the past three months.

Besides the threat of a return by government troops, the biggest danger faced by those who come back is unexploded ordnance (UXO).

A Red Cross team is working to locate and remove the UXO, which are scattered inside houses, patios and gardens, and on the streets, ready to maim or kill anyone who handles or accidentally stumbles upon them.

“People are returning to houses that are affected by explosive devices,” Ivo Palm, the head of the Red Cross UXO clearance team, who has been working in Ajdabiya since late April, explains to IPS.

“It’s nice to see that people are starting to move back, but as people are coming back they’re exposing themselves to risks that we’re trying to remove,” he says.

Palm’s team is going house to house in the neighbourhoods most heavily affected by bombing and fighting. They have also set up a system for local residents to report the location of UXO and request assistance.

In addition, they are carrying out an awareness-raising campaign, to help residents understand the risks and to teach them what to do in case they come across UXO.

In the Ajdabiya hospital, surgeon Suleiman Ridafi says three victims of UXO have been brought in. One of them, an 11-year-old boy, was killed when he played with a hand grenade. “He was already dead when he arrived at the hospital: the explosion amputated both of his hands, and impacted his chest, killing him instantly,” Ridafi says.

But Palm says that so far his team is satisfied with how the UXO clearance mission in Ajdabiya is going. “It’s unusual to be able to start the work before people have even moved back to an area,” he says. He adds, however, that weeks or even months of work lie ahead, before the threat is completely eliminated.

 
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