2023-09-23 10:20:02
“What I saw yesterday is incomprehensible”: With these words, the UN emergency aid coordinator for Libya, Georgette Gagnon, summarized her impressions after a visit to the disaster area. Two weeks ago, storm “Daniel” caused extreme rainfall over eastern Libya, and massive flooding occurred after dams burst. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 4,000 fatalities have been identified so far. The number of victims is likely to rise.
Local authorities in the conflict-affected state are overwhelmed by the situation, and UN authorities and other aid organizations are also facing enormous challenges. Above all, the people affected need food. Bridges and roads have been destroyed, as have many silos and warehouses, making supplies via markets difficult. Ready-made meals, dry rations and nutritional supplements are now crucial in trying to prevent malnutrition in babies and young children, for example.
With deliveries of 96,000 tons of food, the World Food Program (WFP) has so far reached around 16,000 people – the goal is to reach 100,000 people over three months. In the city of Darna, 80 percent of the markets were destroyed. Fishing has been severely affected in the coastal town of Susa.
Access to clean water has become impossible in many places. The sewerage network is severely damaged and it is often unclear where drinking water has mixed with wastewater. 150 cases of illness due to contaminated water have already been reported – and the number is likely to rise. Contaminated water increases the risk of diseases such as cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A and malaria. This risk increases further with the upcoming rainy season in Libya, which begins in October and lasts about three months.
The disaster also has an impact on migrants, of which around 700,000 were counted in Libya before the flood. Many of them attempt the life-threatening boat trip to Europe or are subjected to torture and forced labor in camps. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 43,000 more have been added since the flood, staying in emergency shelters or with relatives, friends or host families. Families with school-age children worry that their children will no longer be able to go to class or will no longer have access to learning materials.
Estimates of the number of bodies that have not yet been discovered vary greatly. There could be several thousand more. It takes heavy equipment and search teams to free them from debris and mud or find them in the sea. These bodies must be identified, registered and buried. The high number of deaths also makes it difficult to help survivors. “There is no longer a functioning administration in Darna, also for the sad reason that among the many victims there are also many administration employees,” reported the German ambassador to Libya, Michael Ohnmacht.
The unstable political conditions in the conflict-affected state make the situation even more difficult for aid workers. General Khalifa Haftar and his so-called Libyan National Army (LNA) maintain strict control over the east, including Darna. In some cases, journalists, UN employees and aid organizations were unable to enter the country or were only able to move around to a limited extent. Telecommunications were partially interrupted. Checkpoints were set up at the entrance to the city of Darna. Even before the disaster, the organization Reporters Without Borders described Libya as a “black information hole. Most media and reporters have fled and left the country.”
Meanwhile, the struggle between the two hostile governments continues in the divided country. A “battle for control of billions of Libyan dinars for reconstruction” is already underway, noted Wolfram Lacher from the Science and Politics Foundation (SWP) on Twitter (X). The previously rampant corruption and neglect of the population, which contributed to the catastrophe, is likely to spread further. In this context, expert Tarek Megerisi from the European Council on Foreign Relations castigated a “greedy leadership” that is now “again hungry for profit while shirking all responsibility.”
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