Amnesty International has published a report decrying the conditions of foreigners and families unable to get food and medicine for months in Benghazi. "We're living like animals," one resident told the rights group.
Amnesty International warned on Friday that hundreds of people, including many families and foreigners, were trapped in the Libyan city of Benghazi for months with no means of escape. A new report highlighted the plight of those surrounded by warring factions in the Ganfouda neighborhood that has been completely cut off from the outside world, Deutsche Welle reported.
"Time is running out for civilians in Ganfouda who are being left to die trapped by the fighting," said Amnesty's deputy head for the Middle East and North Africa, Magdalena Mughrabi.
Benghazi has seen nearly constant fighting since 2014, when troops commanded by Khalifa Haftar have been fighting militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the self-styled Islamic State terrorist groups.
"We're living like animals," one resident told the rights group, saying he had 24 people living in his small house after neighbors' and relatives' houses were destroyed.
Emphasizing the dire need for humanitarian aid, another civilian told Amnesty: "The children look like skin and bones because of the lack of food and poor nutrition. If they could just drop us some food for the children or get them out of here, even if that meant leaving the rest of us, that would be fine."
Amnesty appealed to both sides to create safe corridors in the city so that inhabitants can be given much-need food and medical supplies.
