Action Against Hunger Launches Aid Programmes at Tunisia/Libya Border

7 March 2011 - As thousands continue to flee the escalating violence in Libya, Action Against Hunger | ACF International has launched programmes to address the public health and sanitation needs of displaced people in Choucha refugee camp, eight kilometers away from Libya’s border with Tunisia. Some 14,000 refugees from all over the world have congregated in the camp awaiting repatriation to their countries of origin.

Concerned with unsanitary conditions in the camp, ACF has launched cash-for-work programmes by providing groups of refugees with sanitary equipment and cleaning materials to help collect and dispose of human waste.

The humanitarian organisation is also setting up latrines to prepare for a potential new wave of refugees as the situation in Libya worsens. “So far we’ve not encountered any major logistical problems on the Tunisian side of the border,” said Juanjo Tarrés, ACF’s Emergency Coordinator in Libya. “We’re able to buy our supplies locally and the security situation is stable.”

While insecurity in the makeshift camps is not currently a problem, concerns abound about what may be happening to civilians elsewhere in Libya—in areas off limits to international aid agencies—and how the humanitarian landscape may shift if the conflict broadens in the coming days.

For more information, please contact the Press Office by email or call

020 8293 6197.

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RELATED PRESS RELEASES

14 March 2011 - G8 Foreign Ministers must make humanitarian access to western Libya a priority as situation deteriorates, aid agencies say

4 March 2011 - ACF Dispatches Emergency Team to Tunisia/Libya Border

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