By Islam Alatrash

SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) – Displaced for years by war, the Mokhtar family are ready to reoccupy their home in the ruined Libyan town of Sirte, but bitter to have repaired the shell-ravaged apartment with almost no aid.

The central coastal city, once home to 80,000 residents, has been repeatedly destroyed as it moved from side to side in the decade of violence since the 2011 uprising against Muammar Gaddafi. More than 3,000 families have fled.

The Mokhtar are among a dozen families who are currently working to rebuild and repair an area destroyed by a battle against Islamic State. Four years after being rid of the IS gunmen, many buildings remain razed to the ground, like a giant fist.

“I am in total despair,” Mognaiah Mokhtar said in the bullet-riddled building where she worked with her husband Abdallah. “They (the government) need to see the state we are in, they need to consider our situation.”

“I’m in great distress because of the condition my house was in… I’m psychologically tired, to be honest.”

Their plight underscores the importance for civilians of efforts to resolve the Libyan conflict, including an international meeting in Paris later this week and UN-supported elections slated for later this year.

Armed with brooms, new mattresses and sheets, they work day and night to make their home habitable.

Together with their 12-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son, the couple returned to Sirte in 2017, renting an apartment in one of the least affected areas of the city with Abdallah’s mother as well as his brothers and their families. .

“RESOURCES ARE THIN”

Four years later and now with a newborn baby, the couple are working to return to their two-bedroom apartment on the second floor of a now destroyed building in the Ghiza Bahriya neighborhood.

“We and our neighbors decided to go back to our homes, fix them in any way and try to live there,” said Abdallah Mokhtar, a 42-year-old telecommunications worker.

Other than 2,000 Libyan dinars ($ 440) given to each displaced family in 2019, there has been no significant state support to facilitate their return, he said.

“I feel a great disappointment towards the city officials,” he added.

Sirte mayor Mukhtar Khalifa al Maadani says the current government has provided his municipality with 7 million Libyan dinars ($ 1.5 million) to rebuild, an amount he considers too low to fund the many projects. necessary construction.

“Seven million (Libyan dinars) for a destroyed city,” Maadani said. “Do we use it to build a road or install sewage or a water tank? What can this amount pay for, unfortunately? “

“Resources are slim so far,” Maadani said.

Asked for comment, Taha Jaafari, media adviser to the local government minister of the national unity government, said the GNU had allocated more than one billion dinars ($ 219 million) to the Sirte Reconstruction Fund for s ‘attack sectors such as transport, housing and construction.

Maadani said Sirte was still awaiting the allocation of one billion dinars, which he said had not yet been released.

Despite the uncertain path that awaits them, the Mokhtar family found brief solace in their return home, despite the state in which they find themselves.

“When you return home and home, you can psychologically say: I am at home, in the well of my memories, in my hometown,” said Abdallah Mokhtar. “Every corner of this house reminds me of my childhood.

($ 1 = 4.5456 Libyan dinars)

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Elumami in Tripol; written by Nadeen Ebrahim, edited by William Maclean and Philippa Fletcher)