Humanitarian Convoy Stuck in Libyan Desert Is Determined to Reach Gaza |
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This article was originally published on opendemocracy.net.
“We have been here for four days,” says South African writer and academic Jessica Breakey in a voice note sent from the Libyan desert where she and hundreds of volunteers are stuck as they attempt to deliver aid to Gaza. In the background is the sound of people chatting, organising, and singing songs for Palestine.
“There are no toilets. But this is a really interesting, significant story about something that’s happening at the top of Africa. And that no one is really talking about.”
Breakey is part of the hundreds-strong caravan attempting to reach Gaza by road to deliver ambulances, medical supplies, baby formula, food and reconstruction materials. She sends voice notes whenever the signal holds, taking advantage of the brief moments when communications are not jammed. Those fragments, sent from one of the most dangerous regions in the world, tell a story of courage, solidarity and determined resistance.
The land convoy sits within the wider Global Sumud Flotilla initiative, a civilian effort to challenge Israel’s siege of Gaza by sea and land. Organisers say the point of the flotilla is not only to deliver aid, but to confront the systems that have created this humanitarian crisis: the siege, Israeli occupation and the international complicity that sustains both. The convoy’s ultimate destination is Gaza. But for now they are simply trying to get to Rafah. The crossing point near Palestine’s border with Egypt, they argue, should function as a people’s corridor, not a gate opened and closed at the will of Israeli authorities charged with carrying out genocide.
The route itself is part of the action: a moving act of solidarity across North Africa aimed to build public pressure and awareness at a time when media attention has shifted away from the crisis in Palestine.
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The journey began in Mauritania in the Western Sahara, moving through Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia before reaching Libya. In Tripoli, international participants including Breakey gathered in a camp to prepare the ambulances, trucks and aid. The convoy, Breakey says, moved through western Libya, stopping in the “beautiful town” of Zliten, where residents lined the streets, welcomed them into a mosque and fed them. Here, Nelson Mandela’s grandson and fellow convoy traveller Mandla Mandela addressed a convoy press conference in Zliten, linking the mission to the anti-apartheid tradition of international solidarity.
But now, the convoy........