There is growing concern for people who have been injured and are dying in the ongoing
Libyan conflict. The UN has been granted access, although because fighting is happening in
so many different places, providing assistance is very difficult. Jonathan Marcus reports.
What increasingly looks like a civil war in Libya is an unusual conflict, since outside
humanitarian agencies have so little role in the country. Independent eyes and ears on the
ground are essential if there is to be any proper assessment of the humanitarian conditions,
and where urgent medical aid needs to be sent.
The lack of any clear picture of the course of the fighting adds to the uncertainty. The United
Nations relief co-ordinator, Valerie Amos, pointed especially to the western city of Misrata,
where there has been heavy fighting, and which the Red Crescent has been unable to reach
with ambulances or aid. The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, says that the Libyan
authorities have agreed to a humanitarian assessment team going in, but initially, they will
only be heading to Tripoli.
There seems to have been a significant misjudgement by the outside world as to the pace and
trajectory of events in Libya. The battery of sanctions, diplomatic measures and the referral
to the International Criminal Court were pursued at great pace, almost on the assumption that
the Libyan leader, Colonel Gaddafi, would have been gone by now. The fact that he’s fighting
back raises the possibility of a lengthy or sporadic conflict, which neither side may be able to
win. In the meantime the humanitarian situation will get worse and the calls for outside
intervention may grow.
Jonathan Marcus, BBC News

Vocabulary and definitions

More on this story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12663513 ^[1]
Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2011/03/110307_witn_unlibya_page.shtml ^[2]