THERE IS plenty of bread to be found in the small grocery shop run by Osama Oteibi in central Benghazi. Amid well-stocked shelves of dry goods, customers queue for traditional flatbread or the soft white rolls that are a legacy of Italian colonial rule. “We haven’t experienced shortages, thank God,” says Oteibi. “A lot of food is getting through from the Egyptian side. It is not time to worry just yet.”
Others here disagree. A local man who works with the World Food Programme (WFP) says estimates of food stocks in rebel-held eastern Libya run to two months worth of flour and one month worth of rice. “This is not enough. It is quite dangerous,” he says.
“There is already a shortage of sugar and cooking oil. People are worried. One man in Brega [the eastern port attacked by Gadafy’s forces yesterday] told me residents there are finding it very difficult to get food.”
The all-out revolt that emerged from protests that began in mid-February is disrupting imports and the local supply of fresh food. Many shops and factories in Benghazi remain closed since the city fell to the opposition over a week ago.
Earlier this week, a public health volunteer who said he had collaborated with nurses, doctors and other professionals in eastern Libya to conduct a study into food and medical supplies, told Reuters the region would soon begin to experience serious shortages.
“We will have serious shortages of food, drink, medicine and medical equipment in two weeks, three weeks maximum. We need outside help,” Khalifa el-Faituri, a volunteer with qualifications in public health and pharmacology, said.
In Benghazi’s hospitals, staff already overburdened by the thousands injured, many seriously, fret that they are running out of basics like sterile bandages and other supplies.
“Hopefully nothing else will happen because our supplies have become worryingly low,” says Dr Jamal Benamer, who lived in Ireland for several years and now works at the city’s Hawari hospital.
His concern is shared by Dr Abdullah, head of surgery at al-Jala hospital, which is home to Benghazi’s only trauma unit. “Medical resources were already close to the minimum in Libya before all this started,” he says. “Now we are stretched to breaking point.”
There are reports that Egyptian officials are tightening controls at the border with Libya. Umran Kataani, a Libyan-born man who now lives in Liverpool, crossed the border earlier this week in a convoy loaded with foodstuffs including rice, flour, milk powder, and fresh fruit and vegetables.
The volunteers, whose numbers and funding are drawn from the Libyan diaspora, including Libyans living in Ireland, also brought medical supplies with them. “People are concerned about food shortages if the efforts to overthrow Gadafy take two or three weeks,” Umran says. “But you must remember Libyans are tough people, they became used to shortages when Libya was under sanctions.”