The American Embassy in Libya has issued a statement calling on all Libyan parties to urgently abandon the issues that divide them, and focus their efforts on enhancing the health of Libyans and confronting the deadly novel coronavirus.

The embassy said on Friday that it is particularly crucial for relevant economic institutions to come together quickly, in a spirit of national cohesion, and adopt all appropriate financial measures for a nationwide response to the looming Covid-19 health crisis. It emphasized that it is ready to provide support to all parties in their efforts to reduce the spread of this epidemic

It should be noted that the Ambassador Norland participated in a virtual briefing on April 2 led by the Chief of Mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for Libya, Federico Soda, who provided an update on IOM’s crucial and lifesaving assistance to Libya’s most vulnerable populations, including migrants and internally-displaced persons (IPDs). In addition, IOM briefed on the organization’s ongoing coordination with Libyan health partners and local authorities to strengthen the COVID-19 response.
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Moreover, Ambassador Norland and IOM Chief of Mission Soda also stressed the need for an immediate, humanitarian cessation of hostilities in Libya to allow local authorities the space needed to address the looming COVID-19 threat. They also discussed the need to prevent any discrimination in access to healthcare across Libya. In order to protect the population at large, anyone, including migrants, presenting symptoms of COVID-19 should be able to receive testing and treatment.