Pinoy medical team struggles to keep war victims alive

MANILA, Philippines -  The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Libya reported yesterday that doctors and medical staff are now struggling under extreme conditions to keep victims of hostilities in the war-torn African nation alive.

Simon Brooks, in a press statement released by the Manila-base ICRC, said heavy fighting continues between government troops and the armed opposition in various locations of the troubled state despite air strikes by international forces.

The ICRC report, however, made no mention of the current physical and security conditions of doctors, nurses and other medical staff, who are mostly foreigners, to include Filipinos who refused to leave their work, despite the Philippines’ mandatory evacuation order.

Brooks also reported that access for humanitarian aid agencies remains restricted in most of the country.

“It’s unclear how civilians are faring in the areas affected by hostilities,” he said.

He also reported that they are getting alarming reports from cities like Ajdabiya and Misrata, where the conflict has been raging for weeks now.

Doctors in those cities were struggling under extremely difficult conditions to keep patients alive, he said.

The ICRC has called on everyone involved in the fighting to facilitate humanitarian aid.

Boris Michel, who heads the organization’s operations in northern and western Africa, described the need as urgent.

“Humanitarian organizations need safe access to war-affected areas and medical personnel and ambulances have to be allowed to reach the wounded,” Michel said.

Yesterday, five more ICRC expatriate staff reached Benghazi to join the team that had returned there on March 18.

In recent days, delegates have been allowed to visit two wounded government soldiers held by the opposition.

In a village north of Ajdabiya close to the fighting, ICRC staff distributed first aid and dressing kits to help the local population treat the wounded.

Seven trucks have delivered 145 tons of rice, sugar, oil, lentils and salt to the eastern city of Tobruk. This can feed tens of thousands of people should the need arise.

Together with the Libyan Red Crescent, the ICRC organized the safe transfer of a group of more than 500 foreign nationals and their families from Benghazi to the Egyptian border.

Meanwhile, a Filipina caregiver was wounded when a bomb exploded at a crowded bus stop Wednesday in central Jerusalem.

In an interview with ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol, Elsa Torres of Alaminos, Pangasinan said she was waiting for a bus near a bus station in Jerusalem when she heard a very loud explosion.

She said bystanders told her about the blood in her face but she ran because of fear that another bomb would explode.

The Filipina complained of pain in her eyes after the explosion.

Torres said she already informed her mother and son about the incident.

“I was standing on the door and waiting for the bus to stop when suddenly there was an explosion. Bystanders told me that I was bloodied but I ran fearing that there would be another explosion,” she said in Filipino.

An ambulance took Torres to the nearest hospital. She complained of pain in her eyes, which the doctors said was due to the impact of the explosion.

No one claimed responsibility for the bombing that coincided with the upsurge of violence on the Gaza border.

The reported violence has led to fears of a new war between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip.-With Pia Lee-Brago and Pia Lee-Brago