"Everyone is thinking
about their lives.
They don't know
what to do anymore
because whenever
there's a shelling,
you can't leave your house.
So you just have to sit
and wait for your fate."
After years of civil
war, many Libyans
have come to expect
the bombings,
the airstrikes, the clashes.
But now Libya faces the
coronavirus pandemic.
Now life in this
conflict zone that
seemed like it
couldn't get any worse
suddenly has in just
a matter of weeks.
"The war should stop in
order to have a better chance
of dealing with the virus.
It doesn't mean that we
will easily beat it."
But the war hasn't stopped.
Years of conflict
have not only
led to conditions that make
it easier for the virus
to spread but forces pushing
to seize the capital city
now seem to be exploiting
the pandemic to inflict
maximum terror on civilians
by shelling areas where people
are clearly trapped
at home under curfew
and by attacking Libya's
already overwhelmed
hospitals.
There are 25 confirmed
cases of the coronavirus
in Libya as of April 12, but
testing is extremely limited,
and the number is
likely to grow.
In the capital of Tripoli,
residents face a dire choice.
Do they stay in their
homes and risk getting hit
by shells or do they flee and
risk contracting the virus?
"Everyone's worried.
They don't know what's going
to happen with their lives.
Is it going to end because
of the coronavirus?
Is it going to end because
of the continuous shelling?
People are just lost."
Libya's civil war
began six years ago.
And the fighting is
between two main groups,
the UN-recognized government
of National Accord,
based in the
capital of Tripoli
and the Libyan
National Army led
by a military
strongman who's based
in Benghazi to the east.
For the past year,
the LNA has been
attacking Tripoli on its
push to control the country.
The front line has
moved into the suburbs,
sending residents fleeing
deeper into the city,
crowding closer together.
We spoke to one resident
who's had to move twice,
from this area further and
further into the dense city.
She asked that we
only use her voice.
These conditions will
likely make it much easier
for the virus to spread.
When the pandemic began,
both sides of the conflict
imposed curfews.
They readied hospitals
and public areas.
They put on masks and
continued fighting.
Eventually they
agreed to pause
the fighting because
of the virus,
but the agreement didn't last.
The LNA had
pledged on Facebook
to halt its advance
on Tripoli--
--but we found that its forces
resumed attacks on the city
within minutes.
And just one day after the
first confirmed coronavirus
case was announced, the LNA
began its worst shelling
on residential areas that
anyone could remember,
despite the fact that
people were clearly
stuck in their homes under
curfew and self-quarantine.
"I've never felt
so close to death
as I am feeling right now,
right here in Tripoli.
You're living in confusion,
and you don't know--
you're just very lost."
It's in moments like this,
under mandatory curfew
and under a rain of
shells, that many
feel there's no way out.
It's not just people
at home being hit.
It's doctors at work too.
The LNA has rarely attacked
major civilian hospitals
over the past year,
but since the pandemic,
one hospital complex has
been struck three times
in less than a week.
The hospital was well
known for treating
coronavirus patients.
It was evacuated and
forced to briefly close.
The international community
condemned the hospital
attacks but to little effect.
The war continues to rage.
One analysis found
that violence
in Tripoli over
the past year has
spiked during the pandemic.
"And the fighters, I mean,
you cannot really quarantine
them.
They are moving from
a city to another.
Despite the situation
that we have,
they are going to take their
share of the hospitals' beds,
and that will make dealing
with coronavirus patients
even harder."
Some international
aid has reached Libya,
but the world at large is
mostly focused elsewhere
on fighting the pandemic
and their own countries.
And so many Libyans are
left to fend for themselves
as they wait to see just how
far the war and the virus
will spread.
