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TSF Realities On The Road To Tripoli (SatCom)


Rebel fighters celebrate as they stand on top of the monument inside the main Moammar Gadhafi compound in Bab Al-Aziziya in Tripoli, LIbya, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011. The rebels say they have now taken control of nearly all of Tripoli, but sporadic gunfire could still be heard Wednesday, and Gadhafi loyalists fired shells and assault rifles at fighters who had captured the Libyan leader’s personal compound one day earlier. Photo: Sergey Ponomarev / AP
[SatNews] It is easy to grow comfortable in our lives until we are reminded… Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) met in Tunisia with teams from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the World Food Programme (WFP), in charge of the coordination of operations in Libya. TSF is a member of the United Nations Emergency Telecoms Cluster.

Following this meeting, TSF crossed the border between Tunisia and Libya, at the Dehibat border post in the south of Tunisia. TSF’s objective is:
  • To install fixed and mobile connections at Nalut and Jadu, to facilitate the communication of the hospitals in these two towns
  • To respond to the needs of the humanitarian community on the ground via mobile satellite solutions, for a better coordination and faster exchange of information between the towns of Jadu, Zintan and Garian
  • To install a second fixed hub in Yafran
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The telecoms situation is critical: The GSM connections of the two local operators are not functioning in this region. Five VSATs allow the towns of Nalut, Kabaw, Ruhaibat, Jadu and Zintan to have shared priority access to the Internet; however the connection is very slow.

The same solutions have apparently been installed between the towns of Rujban and Garyan, but the connections have not been activated, making these towns a priority for TSF. The TSF team currently is based in Jadu, and will go to Yafran today in order to establish reliable satellite connections along the route towards Tripoli.

This movement necessitates supplementary security precautions. Indeed, security still remains a major problem in the western region of the country, and conflicts still persist between Yafran and Tripoli.

Télécoms Sans Frontières is the leading humanitarian NGO specialized in emergency telecommunications. With its 24-hour monitoring centre and relying on its operational bases in Europe, Central America and Asia, Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) crews of IT and telecoms specialists can intervene anywhere in the world in less than 24 hours. After a sudden onset disaster or conflict, they can set up in a matter of minutes a satellite-based telecoms centre offering broadband Internet, phone and fax lines. These centres enable emergency NGOs, the United Nations and local authorities to communicate right at the heart of a crisis. They also facilitate the coordination of aid efforts. In parallel, TSF runs humanitarian calling operation to offer support and assistance to affected civilians, giving them a link with the outside world from which they would be otherwise completely cut off. For more information, consult.