Families of UNIFIL personnel must leave Lebanon

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 7 - The families of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) personnel must leave the country, UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told ANSA on Wednesday.
    The request was made by the UN, according to an order already issued in May, said Tenenti.
    The UN contingent is formed by some 10,000 military personnel, including over 1,000 Italians. Tenenti explained that since May, with tension escalating at the border between Lebanon and Israel, the mission has become a "non-family duty station".
    "Many families have left, even though some remained in Beirut where the situation was calmer.
    "Now the new measure concerns them as well", noted the spokesman, adding however that it is a "temporary measure".
    It is expected to last "at least until the end of August" and it can't be described as "an evacuation but rather as a relocation", he explained. (ANSA).