Red Cross 'temporarily suspends' work in Libya after staffer killed

A day after the shooting death of a member of the International Red Cross' Libyan operation, the organisation is suspending activities in the country, a spokesman said Thursday.

Forty-two year old Michael Greub, a Swiss citizen, was leaving a meeting with two colleagues on Wednesday in Sirte, a coastal town halfway between Tripoli and Benghazi, when their vehicle was targeted by a group of armed men and Greub was shot.

The two other staff members who were with him at the time of the attack were unharmed.

"We are devastated and outraged," said International Red Cross Director-General Yves Daccord in a statement on Thursday. "Michael was a devoted humanitarian who spent many years of his life helping others."

Greub worked for the ICRC for more than seven years, carrying out assignments in Iraq, Sudan, Yemen, and Gaza. He had started at his post in Misrata this past March. 

Wolde-Gabriel Saugeron, an ICRC spokesperson reached Thursday, said it was too early to speculate whether Greub and his colleagues were targeted because of their connection to the ICRC, or who the killers might be.

Saugeron said the organisation was temporarily suspending its activities to "review and understand the incident."

"There are people we’ve been helping in Libya who need our support and assistance," he said. "We hope to be able to resume soon, that will be the best news, but there are questions raised that need to be answered first."

An update regarding the continuation of ICRC services is expected in the coming days or weeks.

The ICRC's 155 staff members in Libya work with migrants in the country's southern desert region and also visit migrants at detention centres. Earlier this week, the organisation was reporting on ambulance attacks in Benghazi which have made it difficult for people in the eastern city to get medical care.

Security in Libya has devolved over the past year, leaving a power vacuum that has seen frequent kidnappings of diplomats.

Since 16 May, the country has witnessed an uptick in violence following the launch of rogue ex-general Khalid Haftar's operation to, as he has describe his offensive, eradicate 'terrorists' in eastern Libya.

On Wednesday, for the first time since the launch of 'Operation Dignity', Haftar was attacked in his control centre, a villa outside Benghazi. Three of his loyalists were killed in the attack.