AFP, Tripoli :
Layla Mohammed barely had time to gather her children’s belongings before fleeing their southern Tripoli home when shelling targeted the Libyan capital’s outskirts earlier this year.
For months she moved her family between apartments as soaring rents in the crowded city exhausted her savings, eventually leaving them squatting in an unfinished building alongside dozens of other families.
More than 140,000 Libyans like Mohammed have fled their homes since April, when forces loyal to eastern-based strongman Khalifa Haftar launched an assault on Tripoli, seat of the UN-recognised government.
In central Tripoli, the grey skeletons of a highrise construction site -abandoned since 2008 due to a property dispute – now host more than 170 families.
For some, the high rises in Tarik al-Sekka were “a gift from heaven”, since the alternative was living in the street.
But “we live like animals – without running water, electricity, or even sewerage,” said Mohammed, a mother of seven.
Her youngest son is sick with a chronic respiratory illness. “The dust will kill him,” Mohammed despaired.
“All we want is to live in dignity,” she said.
Neighbour Samira crowds her four children into a single room in a nearby building, preferring the greater warmth it affords over any sense of privacy.
She feels safe in the eight square metre room, which thanks to a benefactor has a door and a window. “Even if it’s not ideal, at least it’s free,” she said.
Initially, Samira was determined to stay in her southern Tripoli home, even as combat crept closer over the months.
But when a rocket fell near her house the terror became too much and she fled, she said.
Layla Mohammed barely had time to gather her children’s belongings before fleeing their southern Tripoli home when shelling targeted the Libyan capital’s outskirts earlier this year.
For months she moved her family between apartments as soaring rents in the crowded city exhausted her savings, eventually leaving them squatting in an unfinished building alongside dozens of other families.
More than 140,000 Libyans like Mohammed have fled their homes since April, when forces loyal to eastern-based strongman Khalifa Haftar launched an assault on Tripoli, seat of the UN-recognised government.
In central Tripoli, the grey skeletons of a highrise construction site -abandoned since 2008 due to a property dispute – now host more than 170 families.
For some, the high rises in Tarik al-Sekka were “a gift from heaven”, since the alternative was living in the street.
But “we live like animals – without running water, electricity, or even sewerage,” said Mohammed, a mother of seven.
Her youngest son is sick with a chronic respiratory illness. “The dust will kill him,” Mohammed despaired.
“All we want is to live in dignity,” she said.
Neighbour Samira crowds her four children into a single room in a nearby building, preferring the greater warmth it affords over any sense of privacy.
She feels safe in the eight square metre room, which thanks to a benefactor has a door and a window. “Even if it’s not ideal, at least it’s free,” she said.
Initially, Samira was determined to stay in her southern Tripoli home, even as combat crept closer over the months.
But when a rocket fell near her house the terror became too much and she fled, she said.
