Libya has been dependent on oil revenues to fund government services in recent decades, but there are no sales on the horizon for either side.

As banks run dry, citizens are finding it increasingly difficult to find money to buy food.

“I haven’t been able to make a deposit, or take out money in over two months,” said Salem Hamoudi, 38, who was queuing outside one of the few open banks in Benghazi.

Stocks of essential foods are low and as the value of the Libyan dinar slumps against the dollar, the cost of importing even basic foodstuffs has rocketed.

Some residents of Benghazi’s slum Nayfouz neighbourhood, a collection of tin shacks and dusty wooden shanties, say they have no choice but to beg for food.

Many residents are reliant on local relief organisations, who are attempting to provide food supplies adequate for 400,000 people.

The rebels’ plea comes as a humanitarian crisis threatens several parts of the country. Misurata, the rebel-held port city, is still awaiting aid ships that have been held off shore for fear of government shelling and mines, while in the west, refugees are pouring across the Tunisian border.

The International Organisation for Migration appealed to both sides to make it possible for an aid ship, the Red Star, that has been lying off Misurata, to dock and take on board 1,000 foreign workers who were trying to leave.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said hundreds of patients needed evacuating for urgent medical treatment, and that the shortage of medical staff and supplies meant there was a backlog of 800 people in the city.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported that 8,000 people, mostly ethnic Berber women and children, had fled over the Tunisian border from fighting in Libya’s western mountains.

Meanwhile Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, adopted a tougher tone on the Gaddafi regime yesterday, calling for Col Gaddafi to “immediately” cede power and leave Libya. On Monday, Turkey temporarily closed its Tripoli embassy and its staff were evacuated to Tunisia after vandals attacked the British and Italian embassies.