A Filipino was injured when a mortar round exploded near Tripoli International Airport in Libya last week, leaving him with a wound to the foot.
In a Facebook post, Elmer Cato, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Philippine embassy, said the Filipino man worked for an oil and gas services company and suffered a wound to his right foot.
“Our compatriot is lucky, he only sustained a shrapnel wound in his right foot. His Sudanese co-worker was not – he was killed in the explosion,” Cato said. The incident came one week after a Filipino sustained an injury to his forehead during a rocket attack in a neighborhood where more than 200 Filipinos live and work.
The embassy urged all Filipinos in Libya to leave and assured them that the government would assist in bringing them home.
“Some of us may not be lucky the next time rockets and mortars rain on Tripoli. And so before the fighting intensifies further and before it gets closer to where many of our compatriots are in Tripoli, we plead to them and to their families in the Philippines to please seriously consider our offer to bring them home while we still can,” Cato said.
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, a total of 32 Filipinos have been repatriated from Libya since April 4. The embassy said it is doubling its efforts to convince more than 1,000 Filipinos still in Tripoli to return home.