Libya: “This is a terrible disaster,” said Ahmed Zouiten, WHO’s Libya representative. After being swept into the water by the flood, bodies are still afloat on the shore. On Friday, a rescue crew from Malta’s civil defense division discovered a beach covered in dead bodies.
Even though there was little hope that anyone would survive the disastrous floods, foreign assistance shipments started to arrive in Libya on Saturday. Thousands of people and homes were pushed into the sea as two dams in the coastal city of Derna collapsed under the weight of the storm’s torrential rainfall. Othman Abdeljalil, the eastern administration’s health minister, reported that 3,166 people have died.
According to the World Health Organisation, 3,958 bodies have been found and identified, while 9,000 people are still missing. The eastern city of Benghazi received 29 tonnes of supplies, according to the WHO.
The WHO representative remarked that this catastrophe is dreadful.
The WHO representative for Libya, Ahmed Zouiten, declared that “this is a terrible disaster.” After being swept into the water by the flood, bodies are still afloat on the shore. The beach was covered in bodies when a rescue team from Malta’s civil defence service arrived on the scene on Friday, according to the ‘Times of Malta’ newspaper.
Two planes carrying help were spotted arriving in Benghazi, 300 kilometres west of Derna, by an AFP reporter. According to the Italian Embassy, a ship carrying two helicopters, bulldozers, tents, blankets, and pumps arrived in Derna. The eastern region has also received tonnes of help from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as well as a field hospital from France.
15 Derna casualties are currently receiving care there, according to Hatem al-Tawahani, medical director of the Benghazi Medical Centre, who spoke to AFP. When the floods occurred, one patient, Eid Kayit Abdel Khalif, was working in Derna. He said that there were 75 fatalities in his Egyptian village, Al-Sharif.
Some folks are missing, he continued. We don’t know anything about them. A hundred kilometres to the west of Derna, in al-Bayda, residents struggled to clean the buildings and roadways. Many individuals had alerted an al-Bayda volunteer from Derna about the “confusion and chaos” of rescue efforts in the flood-devastated port city, she added. Rahab Schnaib added, “I lost a lot of dear ones there too. have provided.
The devastating flood that impacted every family in Derna city
Every family in this city has been impacted, according to Mohammed al-Dawali, a native of Derna. A three-month-old girl was among the 1,500 families who were saved, according to security force member Seer Mohammed Seer. She was the lone survivor out of her entire family, who perished.
Poor infrastructure in Libya, which was thrown into chaos after a NATO-supported rebellion murdered longtime ruler Moammar Gaddafi in 2011, was to blame for the flooding. A “second humanitarian crisis,” according to the Islamic Relief Aid Organisation, is imminent due to the rising threat of water-borne illnesses as well as a lack of food, shelter, and medical supplies.
Contrary to popular assumption, however, the bodies of victims of natural disasters rarely constitute a health concern, according to the Red Cross and WHO. More than 1.2 million people, according to Ahmed al-Mesmari, a spokesman for the national army of eastern Libya, were impacted by the floods. An appeal for more than $71 million has been issued by the UN to aid those in need.
Martin Griffiths, the head of the UN’s relief efforts, urged coordination on Friday between Libya’s two rival governments, the Tripoli-based, internationally recognised government supported by the UN, and the government located in the disaster-stricken east, saying we do not yet know the extent of the issue.
The reasons for damage in Libya are carelessness, corruption, and neglect.
Osmana Hamad, the head of the eastern administration, declared that new procedures would be put into effect on Saturday and would enable the evacuation of people from the disaster area. Two dams that were the cause of the accident have been fractured since 1998, according to Libyan Prosecutor General al-Sediq al-Sur, who announced the probe after it began. The prosecutor stated that work on repairs begun by a Turkish business in 2010 was put on hold for a short period when the 2011 revolution began and that those guilty would face serious punishment. decided to handle it.
More than “38,640” persons, including 30,000 in Derna alone, were reported as being homeless in eastern Libya by the International Organisation for Migration. According to climatologists, Libya’s crumbling infrastructure and warming environment are to blame for the catastrophe. “A puzzle of dysfunction, incompetence, negligence, neglect, and corruption is slowly emerging behind the disaster in Derna,” said Wolfram Lacher, a Libya specialist at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
