Fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Muammar Qadhafi is forcing thousands of refugees to flee western Libya on foot to the Tunisian border and by boat to Europe, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Rebels said they expected billions of dollars in credit soon from Western governments to feed and supply their territories in the east and support their campaign against Qadhafi.
Refugees fleeing western Libya have said the danger of starvation is growing in some besieged towns. Zintan has been heavily shelled, and aid deliveries to the port of Misrata have been hindered by artillery fire and a mine near the harbour entrance. Rebel spokesmen said fighting had flared again in Misrata's eastern suburbs, near the port that provides the besieged city with a lifeline to the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
"Fighting is taking place in the area of Bourouia. The (pro-Qadhafi) brigades are trying to enter the Tamina area, east of the city," one spokesmen, Reda, told Reuters by telephone. Qadhafi, who seized power in a 1969 coup, has not been seen in public since a Nato missile attack on Saturday on a house in Tripoli which officials say he survived but which killed his youngest son and three grandchildren.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR said an exodus from the Western Mountains region had resumed, with Libyan families fleeing into southern Tunisia. "This past weekend, more than 8,000 people, most of them ethnic Berbers, arrived in Dehiba in southern Tunisia. Most are women and children," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told a news briefing in Geneva. Tens of thousands have already fled.