“Conditions in Tripoli’s hospitals could become catastrophic without a rapid improvement in security in the Libyan capital, the emergency coordinator of aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) told Reuters on Wednesday.”

MSF’s Rosa Crestani “said the most urgent cases included not just those wounded in the fighting, but also civilians such as women needing caesarean sections” and that “[h]ospital staff are overwhelmed and exhausted,” according to Reuters. She added that medical supplies, antibiotics, vaccines and medications to treat non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and cancer are urgently needed, the news agency reports. “The European Union said on Wednesday it had been preparing for months and was ‘geared up for the humanitarian challenge,’ with an initial focus on war surgery and helping hospitals,” Reuters notes (Miles/Ahmed, 8/24).