Report on Internally Displaced People from Benghazi
- The Red Crescent Society – Libya (RCSLY) published a report[i], on 18th April 2015, on the numbers of IDP’s in Libya. The report was the most detailed and comprehensive on numbers of IDP’s in Libya, unfortunately CRSLY did not update the report since.
- The total number of IDP’s, as of 1st April 2015, was 557’212 persons (103’821 families),
- Number of IDP’s from Benghazi, as of 1st April 2015,
o The report listed 40 locations (cities & towns) which reported registered IDP’s,
o Twelve (12) locations reported IDP’s only from Benghazi,
- 108’830 IDP’s in Benghazi from Benghazi[ii] (21’730 families),
- 70’633 IDP’s in 11 locations from Benghazi (13’406 families),
- Total of 179’463 IDP’s from Benghazi only were registered in 12 locations (35’136 families),
- This is about 32% of the total IDP’s reported by CRSLY on 1st April 2015,
o Thirteen (13) locations reported IDP’s from 2 or more locations including from Benghazi,
- 278’215 IDP’s (50’930 families),
- The report does not provide break down of sources of IDP’s in locations which registered IDP’s from several locations. Hence, Benghazi IDP’s here need to be estimated,
- Of the 278’215 IDP’s, Benghazi IDP’s are between:
- 55’643 persons (10’186 families) assuming 20% were from Benghazi,
- 83’465 persons (15’279 families) assuming 30% were from Benghazi,
- Total number of IDP’s from Benghazi, on 1st April 2015, was 235’106 ~ 262’928 persons (45’322 ~ 50’415 families)
- The number could be higher, since some did not register as IDP’s with any of the relief organizations, or government institutions, as they managed their own accommodation & income.
- Despite the fact that fighting in many districts & suburbs of Benghazi has come to an end, many IDP’s still can’t go back to their homes because:
o In some areas, the destruction to properties and infrastructure is extensive, especially the old town, Sabri district, Ganfuda & Garyounis (south of Benghazi),
o Homes of IDP’s have been either looted & burned, or taken over by strangers. Pro Haftar militias have taken over homes of those they deemed enemies[iii] and brought other families and settled them in these properties. Human Rights Solidarity (HRS) has documented, in 2015, over 350 individual cases of homes that were either looted & destroyed, or taken over by strangers. Since then, the number of confiscated properties has increased. HRS is running a project to document such cases, to update the 2015 cases.
[i] Copy of the report is provided in “LHRS PRS-105-02-18 Annex 002.pdf”, attached to this report.
[ii] People moved to other neighborhoods within the Benghazi itself, away from conflict zones.
[iii] Even homes of people who were not involved in the war were targeted, simply because they were out of town. In one case, August 2017, the home (villa) of a judge from Benghazi was taken over by a family of one member of a pro Haftar militia, when he went to Tripoli to start work at the Supreme Court.
https://www.refworld.org/docid/5b6abebf4.html
