Libya Steps up Tripoli Jab Drive as Virus Caseload Rises

People wait at a makeshift coronavirus vaccination and testing centre set up in the Libyan capital Tripoli. (AFP)
People wait at a makeshift coronavirus vaccination and testing centre set up in the Libyan capital Tripoli. (AFP)
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Libya Steps up Tripoli Jab Drive as Virus Caseload Rises

People wait at a makeshift coronavirus vaccination and testing centre set up in the Libyan capital Tripoli. (AFP)
People wait at a makeshift coronavirus vaccination and testing centre set up in the Libyan capital Tripoli. (AFP)

Libyan authorities on Saturday stepped up their vaccination campaign around the capital Tripoli, as coronavirus cases rise across the country.

The health ministry has set up temporary centers in six districts of the capital, and AFP journalists saw long queues outside the tents on Saturday morning.

"The campaign will continue until all the available doses are used," doctor Rawad Behelille told AFP in central Tripoli.

Earlier this month, head of the Government of National Unity (GNU) Abdulhamid Dbeibah issued a decree instructing cafes and restaurants to close due to rising infections, while also suspending university lectures and weddings.

Daily reported cases have reached several thousand in the past week, in a country with a population of around seven million.

Libya has recorded over 229,600 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, including over 3,340 deaths.

Fewer than 500,000 people have been vaccinated since the war-torn country's inoculation campaign started in April.



Sudan Army Surrounds Khartoum Airport and Nearby Areas 

A fighter loyal to the army patrols a market area in Khartoum on March 24, 2025. (AFP)
A fighter loyal to the army patrols a market area in Khartoum on March 24, 2025. (AFP)
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Sudan Army Surrounds Khartoum Airport and Nearby Areas 

A fighter loyal to the army patrols a market area in Khartoum on March 24, 2025. (AFP)
A fighter loyal to the army patrols a market area in Khartoum on March 24, 2025. (AFP)

The Sudanese army is encircling Khartoum airport and surrounding areas, two military sources told Reuters on Wednesday, marking another gain in its two-year-old war with a rival armed group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Separately, Sudan's army said in a statement it had taken control of the Tiba al-Hassanab camp in Jabal Awliya, describing this as the RSF's main base in central Sudan and its last stronghold in Khartoum.

The army had long been on the back foot in a conflict that threatens to partition the country and has caused a humanitarian disaster. But it has recently made gains and has retaken territory from the RSF in the center of the country.

The army seized control of the presidential palace in downtown Khartoum on Friday.

Witnesses said on Wednesday that RSF had mainly stationed its forces in southern Khartoum to secure their withdrawal from the capital via bridges to the neighboring city of Omdurman.

The UN calls the situation in Sudan the world's largest humanitarian crisis, with famine in several locations and disease across the country of 50 million people.

The war erupted two years ago as Sudan was planning a transition to democratic rule.

The army and RSF had joined forces after forcing Omar al-Bashir from power in 2019 and later in ousting the civilian leadership.