عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Features

Hope for Libya's War Amputees

Patients wait for a consultation at a center for artificial limbs in the Libyan port city of Misrata. AFP
Patients wait for a consultation at a center for artificial limbs in the Libyan port city of Misrata. AFP
TT
TT

Hope for Libya's War Amputees

Patients wait for a consultation at a center for artificial limbs in the Libyan port city of Misrata. AFP
Patients wait for a consultation at a center for artificial limbs in the Libyan port city of Misrata. AFP

For Radwan Jibril, wounded in a bastion of Libya's 2011 revolution, losing his leg became "inevitable" and he had a prosthetic replacement, but thousands of other amputees are still waiting.

An orthopedic center is finally scheduled to open in March to provide prostheses to amputees in the country riven by conflict for the past decade.

Jibril, like so many others, was hit by shrapnel in his western hometown of Misrata, which endured a devastating siege during the revolt that brought down longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

"Despite several medical stays abroad, amputation was inevitable because the injury had been so badly treated. It was all a big shock," he said.

"I was fitted with a prosthesis in Italy but it took a long time to get used to it," said the 38-year-old Libyan, who sports a light beard.

With the support of family, he has opened a fishmonger's where he serves customers as best as he can with "this foreign body", he told AFP, shuffling from stall to stall with one leg stiff.
Now, he feels "like a new man again".

His prosthesis, however, is starting to wear out, and "with hundreds, if not thousands, waiting their turn, it won't be easy" to have it serviced, he said.

Mohamad al-Nouri, 28, had a hand amputated because of an injury while fighting in 2019 in the ranks of the Government of National Accord (GNA) against an offensive by Libyan National Army leader Khalifa Haftar.

He was fitted with an artificial hand but is waiting to go to Germany for a permanent prosthesis.

"I don't think I can go back to the cafe where I worked... I still need a lot of time to regain my confidence," said the young man.

A national center for prostheses, being established in the port city of Misrata, already has a patient waiting list of more than 3,000 amputees, said its director Al-Sadeq al-Haddad.

"In five years, we hope to be able to provide prostheses to all amputees in Libya," said Haddad.

"This will help them get their lives back, together with psychological and physical support," he said.

The center, to be housed in a brand new building, will save the government a "significant sum" of money, said its director.

"A team of Hungarian specialists are to train technicians and run a rehabilitation service for a year," Haddad said.

Most Viewed

 
 
Features

Mass Graves Become Last Resort for Syrians Searching for Missing Loved Ones

People searching for bodies in a trench believed to be a mass grave on the outskirts of Damascus in December (AFP)
People searching for bodies in a trench believed to be a mass grave on the outskirts of Damascus in December (AFP)
TT
TT

Mass Graves Become Last Resort for Syrians Searching for Missing Loved Ones

People searching for bodies in a trench believed to be a mass grave on the outskirts of Damascus in December (AFP)
People searching for bodies in a trench believed to be a mass grave on the outskirts of Damascus in December (AFP)

At 80, Syrian Abdel Rahman Athab still holds on to hope of finding his son, missing for 11 years. He searched tirelessly—watching former detainees leave prisons, combing through hospitals, and finally, visiting suspected mass grave sites. Despite losing three other children, Athab clings to the hope of finding his son or at least laying him to rest.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights estimates that since 2011, about 136,614 people have been forcibly disappeared or arbitrarily detained. Of these, over 113,000 remain missing, leaving families in heartbreaking uncertainty.

The pain of Athab’s family began with the start of Syria’s revolutionary unrest. The father, who had six sons and two daughters, recalls with deep sorrow: “Four were engineers, and two were teachers. At the onset of the revolution, they joined protests against the regime, and I stood with them.”

By late 2011, three of his sons were killed, their bodies returned in disfigured remains wrapped in black bags. Athab buried them, held a mourning service, and, though devastated, accepted their deaths, seeing them as martyrs for Syria. “I found comfort knowing they were in a safer place,” he said.

However, just two years after losing his sons, Athab’s fourth child disappeared in Damascus. The remaining members of his family fled the country, leaving the father’s heartache to grow even deeper.

In his ongoing search for his missing son, Athab told Asharq Al-Awsat that he and his family have been tracing newly uncovered mass grave sites across Syria in the past month.

On January 4, local Syrian outlets reported that residents found a mass grave near the Ninth Division in the town of Sanamayn, located in the northern countryside of Daraa in southern Syria.

This discovery followed another mass grave found about two weeks earlier at “Al-Kuwaiti Farm” on the outskirts of central Daraa.

The area had been under the control of a militia linked to the military intelligence branch, and 31 bodies, including those of women and a child, were recovered.

Additionally, a team from Human Rights Watch reported visiting a site in the al-Tadamon neighborhood of southern Damascus on December 11 and 12, 2024.

They found a large number of human remains at the location of a massacre that took place in April 2013, with more scattered around the surrounding area.