The Ministry of Economy and Industry has condemned the bombing of the largest commercial foodstuff complex in Libya, in Karimiya district, Friday morning, resulting in several fires in a number of commodity stores in the area.
In a statement, the Ministry demanded that the case be referred to domestic and international courts to make sure that such acts do not go unpunished, calling on the United Nations to take a firm and clear stance on this attack.
Libya’s National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced on Thursday a new positive case of Coronavirus / Covid-19.
It revealed that it had received a total of 65 suspected samples with one proving positive while the balance were negative. It said the new case had mixed with an existing case.
This brings Libya’s total Coronavirus cases to 49, with eleven recoveries and one death.
The Economy Minister, Ali Al Issawi, wrote a letter to the ministers of interior and health, -who head the anti- coronavirus supreme committee- , through which he stressed that the Ministry of Economy and Industry called on the government to exempt factories and production units from the lockdown enforced on the background of the Coronavirus pandamic, and to allow them to carry out their operations in accordance with their functioning system.
Al-Issawi emphasized that locking down factories and production units will negatively affect the stocks of local-made goods and will drive the prices up in the local market as the month of Ramadan approaches.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohamed Al-Qiblawi said that around 3,200 Libyan nationals in Turkey and Tunisia have confirmed that they want to return to Libya, anticipating that these numbers are likely to increase in the coming days.
On the other hand, the Libyan Consulate in Istanbul confirmed that, starting from next Saturday, it will initiate RT-PCR analysis to all Libyan citizens who want to return to Libya.
Today, Mellitah Oil and Gas Company claimed that it resumed operations to transfer workers between the Al-Bury field and Bahr al-Salam gas field for the second consecutive day via helicopters and supply vessel.
Mellitah Oil and Gas Compan noted that certain users left Abu-Attifel Oil Field as well as El-Feel Oil Field through Land Transport Agencies in the cities nearby the mentionned fields.
Yesterday, the company highlighted that transmission operations will be organized on a daily bases until all workers within the fields are replaced.
Yesterday, Mellitah Oil and Gas Company claimed that it started operations to transfer workers between the Al-Bury field and the Mellitah industrial complex, by operating two helicopter flights while another trip will be organized via a supply vessel.
The company explained that the new shift came after a pause in labour turnover recently over coronavirus concerns, emphasizing that the process was conducted after taking all necessary measures to ensure the non-transmission of the virus within its facilities.
The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that five wealthy countries pledged to provide $11.7 billion to an IMF loan and grant facility for poor countries, as the Fund’s steering committee vowed to review the adequacy of resources needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said the firm commitments to boost the capacity of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust came from Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Australia, representing nearly 70% of the $17 billion increase she asked for on Wednesday.
The pledges were made during a Thursday morning meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the global crisis lender’s 24-member steering committee, held by videoconference.
Georgieva also said that Germany had pledged funds to another emergency grant facility to provide direct funds for the poorest countries, boosting the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust’s resources to $600 million.
Finance officials from the Group of 20 major economies agreed on Wednesday to suspend debt service payments for the world’s poorest countries through the end of the year, a move quickly matched by a group of hundreds of private creditors.
The actions to freeze both principal repayments and interest payments will free up more than $20 billion for the countries to spend on improving their health systems and fighting the coronavirus pandemic, Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan told reporters after a virtual meeting of G20 finance officials.
Saudi Arabia is hosting the G20 meetings this year. Wednesday’s video conference meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors ran well over the scheduled two hours, delaying news conferences planned by al-Jadaan and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.
Hundreds of thousands of children could die this year due to the global economic downturn sparked by the coronavirus pandemic and tens of millions more could fall into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis, the United Nations warned on Thursday.
The world body also said in a risk report that nearly 369 million children across 143 countries who normally rely on school meals for a reliable source of daily nutrition have now been forced to look elsewhere.
“We must act now on each of these threats to our children,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “Leaders must do everything in their power to cushion the impact of the pandemic. What started as a public health emergency has snowballed into a formidable test for the global promise to leave no one behind.”
Today, Libyans rushed to stock up on food for the holy Muslim month of Ramadan before a curfew starts in the capital Tripoli and other western areas aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus.
The coronavirus adds to the fears and anxieties of residents tired after years of conflict that have seen the huge north African country divided into rival governments.
Despite calls by the United Nations for a ceasefire to allow Libya’s fragmented and overstretched health system to prepare to fight the COVID-19 disease, fighting has intensified since the LNA lost four towns in western Libya.
