Tuesday 8 March 2011

From Salloum to Benghazi

Refugees crowd the Egyptian border
After an almost 20-hour drive - two busses, thee cars - from Cairo to get here I'm finally in Benghazi. There were hundreds of foreign workers stranded at the border with Egypt without the money or the papers to get home.
Today I saw where the rebels are 'training' their 'troops:'  young boys – one I spoke to was 15 and others looked younger – and old men, bellies and all. How effective they are is hard to fathom; reports from both sides are so wildly different it seems almost impossible to gauge what's actually happening. What is undeniable is that the generosity of many of the Libyans I have come across so far has been humbling. Yup, sounds massively cliche but none of this would be possible without them. It's dangerous here, a grenade was chucked at our hotel last night (only found out when we saw the glass being swept up this morning) but within hours volunteer security guards were all over the place. We're looked after, and it's a godsend. 

Libya's new immigration authority
Training (and below)


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