France Sends Aid To Libyan Rebels
The BBC reports:
France is to send two planes of aid to opposition territory in Libya, Prime Minister Francois Fillon has said.
The announcement came hours after Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie quit amid controversy over her contacts with the former Tunisian regime.
Her decision to stand down was "political not moral", Mr Fillon said.
Paris has been stung by accusations that it was too cosy with the authoritarian regimes overthrown in recent weeks, say analysts.
Ms Alliot-Marie was heavily criticised for initially offering French help to quell the uprising in Tunisia.
Subsequent revelations about her and her family's links to the regime of former President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, and the fact that she had taken a Christmas holiday in Tunisia during the uprising made her position increasingly untenable.
'Massive operation'
"In a few hours two French planes will leave for Benghazi on behalf of the French government with doctors, nurses, medical equipment and medicine," Prime Minister Fillon said in an interview with France's RTL radio - referring to the eastern Libyan town that has been at the centre of the Libyan uprising and is now in opposition hands.
"This will be the start of a massive humanitarian aid operation to the populations of liberated areas," he declared.
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