Libya Health Care System Risks Collapse

08/01/2014

The Philippines on Thursday (July 31st) began to evacuate 13,000 citizens from Libya as violence continued to rage, AFP reported. The move came after a kidnapped Filipino worker was beheaded and a nurse gang-raped.

Libya has warned of a “total collapse” of its health care system, as the security chaos threatens to send into flight many of the foreign workers on whom its hospitals depend.

Health workers from the Philippines make up 60 per cent of Libya's hospital staff. Workers from India account for another 20 per cent.

Fighting between rival militias in Tripoli, and between Islamists and army forces in Benghazi prompted several countries to evacuate their nationals and diplomatic staff.

In Tripoli, at least 102 people have been killed and 452 wounded in the clashes that began on July 13th, the health ministry said Wednesday.

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