Update No. 3 on the Situation in Tripoli

24 April 2019 – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is reiterating its appeal to the more than 1,000 Filipinos in Tripoli to have themselves repatriated after another Filipino was wounded in intense fighting outside the Libyan capital. The Department also again appealed to families in the Philippines to convince their loved ones in Tripoli to return home.

The Department issued the appeal after the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli reported a second Filipino casualty in the fighting. The Embassy said a 45-year-old cook from Misamis Occidental was wounded in the foot by shrapnel from a mortar round that struck their housing compound near the Tripoli International Airport. A Sudanese co-worker was killed in the explosion.

Embassy Chargé d’Affaires (CDA) Elmer G. Cato said the wounded Filipino and his six Filipino co-workers have been evacuated from the area, which he said has seen most of the fighting since the latest hostilities in Libya erupted on 4 April 2019.

Last week, Filipino warehouse worker Roland Torres suffered slight injuries in a rocket explosion in front of his apartment located in a residential area where more than 200 Filipinos were staying. A few days later, mortar shells struck a hospital in southern Tripoli where 18 Filipino nurses were staying. CDA Cato said a number of Filipinos have also found themselves trapped in the fighting.

The Embassy has so far repatriated only 11 Filipinos despite its efforts to convince members of the Filipino community in Tripoli to go home.

In addition to online appeals and telephone calls, the Embassy said CDA Cato and Labor Attaché Adam Musa are visiting Filipinos in their work places to convince them to request repatriation before the situation in Tripoli further deteriorates. END