World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Zarzis, TUNISIA -- It has been six months since 61-year-old Malud Omar Salah fled Libya due an influx of weapons and fighting near his remote mountainous hometown. A casual labourer, he brought his wife and two children with him across the border into southern Tunisia, but carried few possessions and little cash.

Malud owns a home in Al Haraba, a village in the Nafusa Mountain area - a major front in the conflict in Libya. He is not prepared to take the family back to his village, just yet.

While Libya’s new government has been established in the capital Tripoli and recognized by the United Nations, intense fighting continues in a few key strongholds of resistance, displacing thousands of people from their homes.

Mines and unexploded ordnance planted during the eight months of conflict pose a deadly threat to civilians and is hindering the ability of humanitarian relief workers to reach some areas. Considering this uncertain and potentially volatile situation, many who have fled are afraid to go back. Malud goes to Libya when he can to try to earn a bit of income, but remains reliant on the food parcels and hygiene kits humanitarian agencies in Tunisia provide him with.

The World Food Programme (WFP) supplies urban refugees like Malud with staple foods, pasta and couscous. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) adds complementary food items to the food basket such as tomato paste, beans, rice and sugar while the Red Cross (ICRC) and Islamic Relief put together kits with basic sanitary items like soap, shampoo and feminine hygiene products.

There are 21,000 Libyan refugees remaining in southern Tunisia and 17,000 of them are scattered in urban areas while 4000 migrant workers who fled the violence in Libya live in two refugee camps near the border.

“Tunisians have been generous and welcoming to us,” Malud says. “They have even accepted my children in school for free. Back home in Libya, schools have reopened, but not all of them and many students have not yet returned.”

There is a ray of hope that things will get better for Malud and his family under a new government in Libya and they do plan to go home. “We will go back when I can make sure that my family will be safe and that the children can attend a functioning school,” he says.