In February 2011, China organized the Libyan evacuation operation, which attracted worldwide attention, but few people know that before the evacuation operation, Chinese citizens in Libya were already doing their best to save themselves.
1) Crisis is coming.
On February 17, 2011, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, a group of Chinese gathered in the small city of Ajdabia in eastern Libya to celebrate the festival. They are employees of Ningbo Huafeng Construction *** Branch in Libya (hereinafter referred to as Huafeng Company), in order to seek better income, they resolutely came to Libya to engage in construction work.
On this day, after tasting the glutinous rice balls distributed by the company, the workers returned to the dormitory to talk to their relatives in China. Only a handful of older workers sat around and talked about current national events. The recent turmoil in Libya saw massive demonstrations erupt in Benghazi, the second largest city, just the day before. However, despite the discussions, these workers did not take the matter to heart. They believe that there have been many unrest in Libya in the past two years, and they have finally been officially quelled. In addition, Benghazi is more than a hundred kilometers away from their construction site, so there is no need to worry too much.
Most of Huafeng's workers have this idea. However, unexpectedly, the day after the Lantern Festival, things suddenly changed drastically. The armed conflict in Benghazi escalated overnight.
The bloody and terrifying scenes of many Libyan people in ** activities are constantly replayed on TV. For a time, the people's anger was high, and the contradictions between Gaddafi ** and the people became more and more tense. During this period, the Libyan armed forces took the opportunity to launch an attack and successfully occupied parts of Benghazi, which quickly spread throughout the country. This ** activity gradually evolved into a military conflict between the *** armed forces and the Gaddafi regime. In just three days, the whole of Libya was in chaos.
Against this backdrop, some young Libyan people took the opportunity to sabotage and loot. They are targeting wealthy but unarmed Chinese companies. At that time, our country undertook tens of billions of dollars in large-scale construction projects in Libya, which spread to all corners of the North African country. Huafeng, located in Ventidabia, signed a contract with Libya ** worth 33The RMB 5.4 billion housing construction project has a total of 936 employees working and living in the local area.
These young Libyans are obsessed with Chinese companies thriving on their land and making huge profits. Seeing that the Chinese workers live without worry and have good monthly salaries, they feel jealous. Therefore, after the unrest broke out, they attacked Huafeng Company as soon as possible.
ii) ** in the madness.
The turmoil in Libya has deeply disturbed Huafeng's employees. The company's top management is also keenly aware that the severity of the conflict is far greater than before. Therefore, Ni Yongcao, deputy general manager and chief engineer, urgently issued a notice: a complete shutdown and employees are strictly prohibited from going out! At the same time, news of attacks on Chinese-funded companies in other cities kept coming, causing panic among Huafeng.
Nervous and anxious emotions spread quickly among employees. At night, the sudden rainstorm and the sound of shells pushed this uneasy atmosphere to a climax. Everyone in Huafeng Company is tense and unable to sleep.
At 2 a.m. on February 19, an unexpected incident caused concern. Five local Libyan youths suddenly broke into a brick factory dormitory, rummaged through the dormitory, and took away several computers and other small belongings. Thankfully, the workers in the dormitory were not injured. However, this event was only a prelude.
The next day, dozens of ** broke into Huafeng Company again. They drove in a dilapidated pickup truck and tried to break through the company's gates. They then kicked open the wooden doors of various offices and smashed window glass. Several workers on duty in the office saw all this and screamed in horror, which made the ** even more arrogant.
They brandished sticks and spears and threatened the workers not to resist. They began searching for valuable items, from office computers, televisions, and printers, to clothing, shoes, and purses. For tables, chairs and benches that are inconvenient to carry and of low value, they wantonly destroy and even set fire.
At this time, the workers of Huafeng Company found that the office area was in critical condition, and gathered one after another and fled. However, some of the daring workers still tried to get into an argument with the ** in order to drive him out.
But ** they have already grabbed the red eye, ** can still listen to the big reason, directly wave the long knife and cut at the workers, fortunately, several workers with their agility successfully avoided the attack. As a result, no one dares to try to stop these mad **, allowing them to wantonly destroy, plunder, and burn. After the attack, the office of a Chinese-funded company was in shambles, and the senior management of Huafeng had to announce that it would abandon its headquarters and evacuate all employees to the work area. However, it wasn't long before a new wave of ** followed, who knew Huafeng inside out, and even shifted the target of the robbery from the office building to the work area.
* They shouted arrogantly in Arabic that the workers could not understand, and some even carried submachine guns to shoot indiscriminately in order to deter the Huafeng workers. Immediately afterwards, stones and Molotov cocktails rained down on the dormitory in the construction area, and in an instant, several houses were engulfed in flames. Although the workers set traps at the entrance of each work area and buried a circle of wooden planks full of nails, this did not stop the ** from frantically plundering. For a time, the work area became a "paradise" for the carnival.
At 4 a.m. on February 20, after the last round of violent looting, the nervous workers of Huafeng Company were able to breathe a sigh of relief for a while. However, a Libyan source working on the ground revealed that the new build-up has reached 1,000 people, and plans to attack the construction area the next day.
In this time of crisis, the workers stayed up all night, sticking to their posts to prevent night attacks. The communication network was interrupted, and the mobile phone signal came and went, and Ni Yongcao, the deputy general manager, was very anxious about this, and the lives of more than 900 employees could not continue to be exposed to danger.
After dawn, Ni Yongcao made a decisive decision: all evacuate Ajdabiya and seek external assistance. The workers quickly packed their luggage, followed the principle of "travel light", and discarded everything that was less important than life. At the same time, Ni Yongcao was intensively planning a retreat route.
Faced with two options: one is to evacuate to Tripoli, the capital of Libya, more than 1,000 kilometers away, where there is a Chinese embassy in Libya to seek assistance, and an international airport to facilitate the return of China; The other is to evacuate to the port city of Benghazi, more than 150 kilometers away, where many Chinese companies and personnel can be evacuated safely if they find a ship willing to help. However, communications were disrupted and the security situation on both routes was unclear.
In order to ensure safety, Ni Yongcao decided to send two teams to explore the road first, and the remaining more than 900 employees temporarily evacuated to the desert 20 kilometers away from the construction site to avoid being attacked again. However, before the pathfinder team could set off, news came that they had not been able to leave the city.
At this moment, in Ejdabia, bullets, stones, and Molotov cocktails are flying over the heads of pedestrians, and as soon as the car of the pathfinder team hits the road, it will be intercepted and looted by Libyan youth.
The news fell silent to everyone.
Deputy General Manager Ni Yongcao thought about it and made a difficult decision
Travel through the desert and head straight to Benghazi.
iv) A decision.
The reason why Ni Yongcao made this decision was really helpless.
In such a time of war, it is undoubtedly a very dangerous thing for nearly a thousand foreigners to cross the city in a mighty way.
And the Sahara Desert Q, which is not far away, can allow them to avoid the attacks of ** to the greatest extent.
This decision was supported by all.
They all understand that in the face of great calamity, they must unite and work together to save themselves.
On the evening of February 20, this group of Chinese workers in a foreign country, carrying the necessary dry food and water, wearing hard hats and holding the steel bars in the construction site, set out on foot towards the vast sea of sand.
There were 936 people in the procession, including a baby who was just over 10 days old.
The line was mighty and stretched for a kilometer.
As the night falls, the sudden drop in temperature makes you shiver.
None of them had desert trekking experience, nor did they have enough food or cold clothing, so they had to support each other and walk forward step by step.
After an arduous trek of more than 20 hours, a few young workers who were exploring the road ahead finally brought back good news: there is a local farm not far away, and the owner said he was willing to lend a hand!
This news instantly stimulated everyone in ***, and they all set their eager eyes on the leader Ni Yongcao. At this time, Ni Yongcao was hesitating.
Because he had witnessed the smashing, looting and burning of the ** before, he didn't believe in the Libyans at the moment, and he didn't dare to put the lives of these more than 900 employees in a dangerous situation.
However, just when he was still discussing with several other backbones, the owner of the village actually came to the resting point in person, and after he looked around at the tired people, his eyes stayed on the naked baby for a long time, and the old owner found Ni Yongcao, and said seriously: [What you have to do at this moment is to let them eat well and sleep well. Ni Yongcao just wanted to resign, but in exchange for an extremely sincere guarantee, the old owner said apologetically.
I am sad that the Chinese have come from afar to build homes for Libyans, but they have been treated like this. I will keep you all safe. ]
If there is a bullet, we will block it: if there is really going to be a dead person, it must be our people. Hearing these words, Ni Yongcao finally took off his guard and led everyone to the farm.
5) Connected to the same fate.
When Huafeng Company was attacked, other Chinese-funded enterprises did not escape the catastrophe. The first of them to be attacked was China State Construction Co., Ltd., which was stationed in Benghazi, hereinafter referred to as China State Construction Corporation). China State Construction has nearly 10,000 Chinese employees in Libya and has contracted a 20,000-unit residential construction project in Benghazi.
At 6 p.m. on February 20, the site guards found several ** rushing into the construction site with a shotgun.
Although everyone has made various preparations for a long time, and the team members have also issued an alarm in time, the construction site has still been seriously damaged, wave after wave** like locusts transiting, and the large and small items in the construction site, even the new ** that has not been opened, are greedily snatched away.
After four rounds of heavy looting, the site finally returned to tranquility after two hours. All those present secretly breathed a sigh of relief. However, after a short period of calm, the person in charge's walkie-talkie heard a fierce smashing sound again. It turned out that Gate 1 was being attacked by **, and adjacent to the gate was a dormitory for female workers. At this moment, the ** people are aiming at the project manager Q who is standing at the front of the crowd. After communicating with ** many times to no avail, he shouted in despair: "No matter what, I can't let this door be breached!" This oath was like a shot in the arm, which inspired the anger of all the employees on the scene.
In order to defend dignity, a party secretary of China State Construction Company led more than 1,000 workers to divide into three teams according to the group at the time of construction, and fought fiercely for 11 hours. They even dug a trench 3 meters deep and 3 meters wide to ensure the safety of their employees, even at the risk of air raids. At the same time, in the northern coastal areas of Libya, 10 areas of China Railway Construction Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as China Railway Construction Company) have also been hit one after another. Workers dug a trench 4 meters wide and 1 meter deep in front of the door of each work area. When they tried to break through the gate, they shouted "March of the Volunteers" through a loudspeaker.
In the sound of the passionate and enterprising "March of the Volunteers", the workers regarded shovels, stones, and steel bars as self-defense, and stuck to the position of four or five meters away from the gate, tenaciously guarding their colleagues behind them.
When the Libyan civil war broke out, more than 70 Chinese companies and more than 30,000 Chinese citizens were displaced overnight, always in difficult predicament, and the safety of life and property was seriously threatened. They know very well that it is difficult for them to protect themselves in this turbulent country with the strength of individuals and small groups, and the only thing they hope for at this moment is the motherland behind them.
The movie "Ten Thousand Miles Home" was filmed based on this event, and interested friends can watch it.