TRIPOLI, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Italy delivered the second batch of urgent humanitarian assistance within a week to Libya to assist migrants detained in its western cities, the Italian Embassy to Libya announced on Friday.
"Urgent humanitarian aid from Italy has arrived at cities of Sabratha and Zwara, coordinated with Libyan Government of National Accord and IOM to deal with migrant emergency," the embassy tweeted.
IOM, or the International Organization for Migration, is an inter-governmental agency dedicated to promoting humane and orderly migration and helping migrants in need.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Italian embassy announced that urgent food and medical aid were delivered to immigrants in Sabratha and Zwara to meet their urgent migrant needs.
Libya's western city of Sabratha witnessed three weeks of armed battle in mid-September between the anti-Islamic State (IS) operation chamber and rival armed groups affiliated with the city's military council.
The fighting ended with the chamber taking over the entire city, which is the largest hotbed of migrant trafficking in Libya.
Medical sources said hundreds were killed or injured in the fighting, and thousands of families fled their homes.
A senior official of Sabratha said last week that more than 3,000 illegal immigrants bound for Europe were found in the city's detention centers.
Basim al-Gharabli, head of the anti-illegal immigration bureau of Sabratha, said at a press conference that the migrants were detained in inhumane conditions.
"We found dozens of children and pregnant women. Some migrants told us they had not been fed for a week," he added.
Libya is a preferred point of departure for immigrants wanting to cross the Mediterranean towards European shores, due to the chaos in the country.
