[JURIST] More than 140,000 people have been internally displaced in Libya [press release] as a result of the country’s rapidly deteriorating security situation, the UN said Monday. Renewed fighting between feuding militias has caused a new wave of displacement, particularly in the western outskirts of Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi, and has heightened the humanitarian needs of those communities affected by the conflict. A convoy sent by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) [official websites] arrived in western Libya on Saturday, delivering a supply of food and humanitarian supplies to families there. Assistance, according to WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and East Europe Mohamed Diab, will be increased in line with what is needed after the WFP assesses the situation there. Access to areas for food and supply delivery is often complicated by blocked roads, and many of the displaced are living in schools and host communities.

Libya remains politically unstable three years after the 2011 uprising [JURIST backgrounder] and subsequent civil war that deposed former dictator Gaddafi. Last month UNSMIL said that recent violence between Libyan political factions has been alarming and unprecedented in its gravity [JURIST report]. In a May briefing to the UN Security Council, International Criminal Court [official website] Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda [official profile] said that Libya faces a deep political crisis and serious security challenges [JURIST report], inhibiting its ability to rebuild itself as a modern democratic state. Last August the US Department of Justice [official website] filed criminal charges [JURIST report] in the deadly attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. The sealed complaint was filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington [official website] against an unspecified number of individuals.