“Recent fighting in Libya, especially in the capital Tripoli, has taken a toll on medical services with overstretched personnel working under very difficult conditions, and seriously ill and injured patients unable to reach hospitals and clinics, health workers say,” IRIN reports.

“As a middle-income country with very little past experience of internal conflict, Libya had little prior experience of treating the war wounded or coping with the psychological trauma of those affected by war,” but “[t]hat has changed,” the news service writes. Khalid Shibib, head of the WHO in Libya, “warned the international community not to think simply of giving a ‘one-off’ donation and walking away, stressing the need for a flexible approach, based on changing needs,” according to IRIN. “‘The world sees Libya as a rich country and it is,’ Shibib told IRIN. ‘But this rich country is in a crisis now'” (9/1).