The Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres and the Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Peter Maurer appealed Wednesday for a halt to bombings in Tripoli, Libya, saying it is enduring untold suffering and destruction from a hail of bombs and shells.
They both called on all parties in Tripoli conflict to refrain from using wide-impact explosive weapons in populated areas, adding that parties to conflict should recognize that they cannot fight in populated areas in the way they would in open battlefields.
They also said that international humanitarian law absolutely prohibits directing attacks against civilians or civilian objects, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, indiscriminate weapons, and using civilians as human shields.
Their statement stresses that Tripoli has been the epicenter since April of a bloody offensive by Khalifa Haftar against Libya's "UN-recognized Government of National Accord", adding that the World Health Organization estimates that more than 1,000 people have been killed in the fighting, which has displaced about 120,000 people.
