Archaeologists are fighting to save the UNESCO World Heritage-listed ancient Greek ruins of Cyrene and Apollonia in the eastern part of Libya.
They were first targeted by jihadist groups in the chaos following the 2011 fall of longtime ruler, Muammar Gaddafi, then ravaged by Storm Daniel in 2023.
Smail Dakhil, who oversees the Museum of Cyrene said the period of fighting between 2014 and 2016 was a very difficult time “due to the lack of security and state institutions”.
"We lived in anxiety and fear for these archaeological pieces and for this civilisational heritage," he said.
The museum houses statues of Apollo and Zeus, and a storage of more than 40,000 rare artefacts salvaged from the ancient city.
