Humanitarian teams sent to Libya borders

The foreign ministry says it has sent humanitarian aid teams to the Egyptian and Tunisian borders with Libya.

Experts will assess the needs on the ground and start emergency measures, a statement said on Saturday evening. The move has the agreement of the Tunisian and Egyptian authorities.

The ministry said that people fleeing from the unrest in Libya were arriving in Egypt and Tunisia exhausted and in need of support.

The two rapid response teams, one per country, are made up of members of the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit (SHA). Two SHA members are also being sent to the Swiss embassies in Tunis and Cairo.

The foreign ministry added that it had donated SFr500,000 ($539,000) to the Swiss-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for medical aid.

Also on Saturday, around 500 people took to the streets in Lausanne, Geneva and Zurich to protest against Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi.

The United Nations Security Council has decided to impose sanctions against Gaddafi’s regime. The resolution also called for the immediate referral of the crackdown against demonstrators in Libya to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for investigation and possible prosecution of anyone responsible for killing civilians.

The UN estimates that more than 1,000 people have died in the unrest, which has been going on for ten days. On Sunday it said more than 100,000 people had now fled from Libya to neighbouring countries.