Organizations implementing U.S.-funded projects and initiatives that are not related to the ongoing crisis in Libya have ceased their operations in the conflict-torn African country as the U.S. and its allies continue their military operation against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s forces.
Most groups, whose activities are unrelated to the uprising in the country, have suspended their work and evacuated international staff members, the Government Executive, a U.S.-based trade magazine, reports.
The International Organization for Migration, which is implementing a U.S.-funded police training project in Libya, said it has put the project on hold. Some of the organization’s international staff members have been deployed to Libya’s borders with Egypt and Tunisia to help migrant workers who are fleeing the violence. Others have headed back to their home countries, the magazine says.
Other grantees of U.S. federal grants maintained their operations in the early days of the uprising but halted operations altogether when coalition forces began the airstrikes. The head of Pediatric AIDS Institute of Texas’ Baylor College of Medicine said the suspension of their work “could have serious implications for the children in Benghazi,” where the college has been leading the training of nurses and doctors under a U.S. State Department grant.
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