UNICEF’s Special Representative to Libya, Abdel-Rahman Ghandour stated that the U.S. Department of State supports UNICEF in Libya with $1.5 million in funding for health and child protection activities in Tripoli, Misrata, Tawergha, and Benghazi during a virtual meeting attended by the Ambassador Richard Norland.

Mr. Ghandour described UNICEF’s ongoing coordination with the World Health Organization, the Ministry of Health (MoH), the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC), and other aid organizations to enhance public awareness of COVID-19 mitigation strategies and strengthen primary healthcare services for children and their families.

UNICEF is coordinating closely with the Ministry of Education to provide distance-learning options to schoolchildren, and the Ministry of Social Affairs to ensure the protection of populations at risk. UNICEF also continues to strengthen basic health, nutrition, and hygiene services for thousands of families in Libya.

As Libya marked one year since the onset of major hostilities in Tripoli, Ambassador Norland and Mr. Ghandour reflected on the many ways in which children are disproportionately affected by the conflict, including exposure to violence, displacement, and a lack of regular access to adequate basic services such as health, education, nutrition, water, and sanitation. They stressed the need for an immediate ceasefire to bring an end to the indiscriminate shelling of civilian infrastructure that has killed or maimed several innocent children in the last month alone.