The Dutch government has agreed to release frozen funds from Moammar Gadhafi's regime to the World Health Organization to buy medicine for the Libyan population as fighting rages on across the country, Deutsche Welle reported.

The funds worth 100 million euros ($141 million) had been frozen as part of sanctions against Libya's embattled leader. They were released Monday, August 15, however, after the WHO appealed to Western governments to free up the frozen money to alleviate shortages in medicine and medical supplies.

The Netherlands was the first country to release the funds after the WHO said the shortages were putting lives at risk.

"Sanctions should squeeze the regime and the population should not be the victim of this. That is precisely what is happening now: frozen money from Gadhafi will be used to save Libyan lives," said Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal in a statement.

In total, the Dutch government has 3 billion euros in frozen Libyan funds. The UN sanctions committee granted the release of the initial 100 million, but it was unclear on Tuesday whether the Netherlands would opt to release more.

Last month the WHO warned that many hospitals had been damaged by the six-month conflict. Coupled with the exodus of migrant nurses and the shortage of medicine there had been a "collapse of the primary health care network," the organization warned.