Libyan increasingly lack access to medical care and lifesaving drugs, and food prices skyrocketing as worsening conflict, aid agencies said Tuesday.
Most of Libya remains out of reach of aid workers, who claim to have summary information on the humanitarian situation, particularly since the airstrikes began at the western end of the week.
Most of the foreign medical staff have fled the country, leaving few doctors and nurses to run intensive care units taking more victims.
Muammar Gaddafi forces attacked two towns west of Libya, on Tuesday, killing dozens. The rebels are trapped in the East and NATO attempts to resolve a heated row over who should lead the air campaign in the West.
"There were reports of shortages of medical supplies and commodities in the eastern part of the country, with prices rising dramatically," Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, during a news conference in Geneva.
The Libyans and immigrants who arrive at the Egyptian border have told UNHCR that thousands of Libyans in the shelter of the East have taken in homes and schools, "said Edwards.
"The conflict has caused acute shortages of many essential drugs, including drug anesthesia. This is particularly problematic given the current high rate of patients admitted to hospitals with acute trauma requiring emergency surgery "Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) told reporters.
There is also a huge shortage of drugs to treat chronic diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and mental health, "she said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), one of the few aid agencies deployed in eastern Libya, is trying to provide emergency health kits to both the rebels and government forces near Benghazi spokesman Marcal Izard ICRC told Reuters.
"We also visited two government soldiers wounded, held by the opposition, who are at the Benghazi hospital," he said.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has sent 1,500 tons of food, primarily wheat flour and high energy bars, insofar Benghazi, enough to feed 114,000 people for 30 days, a spokesman.
It plans to send 30 tons of lentils and vegetable oil from Egypt in the coming days, "she said.
"WFP is particularly concerned about the access to food inside Libya," WFP spokeswoman Emilia Casella told reporters.
"We have heard reports of successful people at the border prices of wheat and bread, more than double rice increases by 88 percent and vegetable oil by 58 percent, she said. Most shops in Zawiyah, Misrata and Sirte were closed.
WFP is preparing to provide up to 25,000 hot meals a day at the border of Tunisia for people fleeing Libya. It now provides about 4,000 hot meals per day for migrants awaiting removal to their country of origin to the airport of Djerba in Tunisia.
"We plan to provide 50,000 meals to the border with Egypt in effect if the output requires that," said Casella.
Nearly 325,000 people have fled Libya since the violence began, mostly migrants from Tunisia and Egypt, but including some 40,000 Libyans, according to the latest tally by UNHCR.
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