Conditions are worsening in Tripoli, the besieged Libyan capital, after water and natural gas supplies to the city were cut in recent days, making life even more difficult for a population living with war and the new threat of coronavirus.

Quoting Financial Times Newspaper, families in western Libya have been facing “apocalyptic” conditions after the water and power cuts, according to Liam Kelly, the Tripoli-based country director of the Danish Refugee Council, an aid group.

The flow of water through a main pipeline to Tripoli and other cities in western Libya from aquifers in the Saharan south was cut off last week by an armed group in Shwerif, a region 350km south-east of Tripoli.

A pipeline carrying natural gas supplies to Tripoli was also cut by another group, plunging parts of the city into darkness and aggravating conditions in the capital where some 150,000 people have been displaced from their homes on the front line.

The Tripoli-based National Oil Corporation has also condemned the disruption to supplies but refrained from identifying the perpetrators.