United Nations: War-torn Libya is at the risk of food security crisis in the next two months, the United Nations World Food Programme has warned.
"WFP stresses that the country's food security system has been severely disrupted and the country is unable to import enough food, due to disruption of port activities and the lack of fuel," UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Thursday.
"It also says that immediate steps must be taken to increase the flow of commercial goods, to replenish stocks of food and inputs for local production, and to maintain social safety nets," he added.
Daly Belgasami from WFP had earlier echoed a similar warning in Geneva.
"We are really concerned about the food security of the population," Belgasami, WFP's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa said.
He noted that departure of an estimated 500,000 foreign labourers, due to the fighting between forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi and the rebels, had disrupted the production and supply of food.
Meanwhile, at the UN headquarters here, Colombian envoy to the UN Nestor Osorio, who holds the current presidency of the Security Council, said the Council members were "dismayed" that a political solution had not been reached by the rebels.
"We renew a call for a political situation," he said, adding that it had been "impossible" for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy for Libya Abdelilah Al-Khatib to meet Gaddafi.
Osorio was speaking after B Lynn Pascoe, the top UN official on political affairs, had briefed the Council on the situation in a closed door session.
The popular revolt against 68-year-old Gaddafi - inspired by similar uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia - began in February, that has left more than 1,000 people dead so far, following which UN mandate sanctioned air strikes against Libyan forces to protect civilians.
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