Amnesty: Hundreds trapped in Libya's Benghazi amid fighting
CAIRO (AP) -- An international rights group expressed alarm Friday over the fate of hundreds of Libyan and foreign nationals trapped for months amid fighting in the eastern city of Benghazi.
Amnesty International said that nearly 130 families and hundreds of foreigners in the southwestern Benghazi neighborhood of Ganfouda have been cut off from the outside world, with dwindling food and fuel supplies.
"Time is running out for civilians in Ganfouda, who are being left to die trapped by the fighting," said Magdalena Mughrabi, deputy director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa Program.
The fighting has raged in Benghazi since 2014 when forces commanded by powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter began a campaign against militants there, including branches of al-Qaida and ISIS. Hifter, supported by British, French, and American military advisers and special forces, has managed to take control over much of the city. Ganfouda is one of the few districts where the militants have put up fierce resistance against Hifter's National Libyan Army forces.
