Libya – a South African doctor’s story

Abstract

In spite of UN-sanctioned air ‘support’ and pin-point strategic bombing to reduce civilian casualties, Libya’s rebel fighters remain relatively easy targets for Gaddafi’s ground forces because of their ‘chaotic and aimless leadership’.
This is the opinion of Dr Imtiaaz Sooliman, founder of Gift of the Givers (GOTG), and chief architect of a humanitarian South African medical rescue mission to that country last month, a week before the aerial no-fly zone was enforced. Besides saving dozens of lives of rebel Interim Transitional National Council (ITNC), fighters and civilians at Adjidabia and Benghazi hospitals, the South African team of 10 doctors (among them several Libyans working in South Africa), passed on vital trauma treatment skills to less experienced local medics.