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Local Council President: Humanitarian Crisis In SirteSirte - Al-WasatThe President of the Sirte Local Council, Abdel Fattah Assiwi has confirmed that the city is facing a humanitarian crisis. He stated that residents are suffering from a fuel shortage lasting over seven weeks, in addition to shortages of medicine and medical supplies, cooking gas, and cash at Sirte’s nine commercial banks.In a phone call with Al-Wasat, Assiwi said that there is ongoing coordination between the Sirte Local Council, the Crisis and Communications Committees, and government and security bodies to provide basic necessities to the city in the near future.Deteriorating ServicesIn describing the situation, Assiwi noted the two-week long Wimax internet outage in the city, the lack of supplies, rising prices of foodstuffs and meats, and the spread of expired foodstuffs in the absence of regulatory control.Assiwi also pointed to the acute shortages of baking flour, baked bread, and cases of vandalism and theft from several government facilities, committed by unknown parties.The Security SituationThe Sirte Local Council President listed a number of schools that were destroyed by unknown persons in the absence of Educational Facility Guards, confirming that the city is witnessing a worsening security situation.Assiwi praised those who were working to provide services to citizens despite the difficult security situation and thanked the General Electricity Company, the General Company for Cleaning Services, the general company for Water and Sewage, the River Investment Apparatus, the Ibn Sina Teaching Hospital, the Council of Governors, and civil society organizations who have been providing charitable and humanitarian services to city residents.On April 7, Members of the Sirte Council of Deputies requested that the interim government declare a state of disaster in the city.According to the Libyan News Network in Bayda, the request from the Council of Deputies entailed forming a crisis committee to meet the humanitarian needs of the city’s residents given the harsh conditions resulting from the clashes between Battalion 166 and Daesh.The request also pointed to the harsh conditions facing the city’s residents, including the lack of fuel, gas, foods, basic necessities, cash at banks, and the complete collapse of all types of services in Sirte.The city of Sirte has seen intermittent clashes between Daesh, which controls parts of the city, and Battalion 166, which is loyal to Fajr Libya.Source: http://www.alwasat.ly/ar/news/libya/71075/