After the flood in Libya, the first aid deliveries have reached the country. The question of who was responsible for the accident remains unclear. Politics promises enlightenment – but hardly anyone believes in it.
Early in the morning, one truck after another rolls over the mountains towards Darna. Relief supplies for the city destroyed by the flood are loaded under the fluttering tarpaulins.
Salem Alnass from the Libyan Red Crescent describes how necessary the help is. The situation is catastrophic, he says. “There are so many dead, missing and displaced people.” More and more aid supplies are arriving. “But given the scale of the disaster, that’s not enough.”
Alnass also mentions the number of deaths again, which is probably still only provisional: “I assume that the death toll is now 10,000 or even 11,000.” Thousands are still missing. 3,000 people from Darna who have lost their homes are being housed in Libyan Red Crescent warehouses.
Numerous Aid initiatives
The aid deliveries come from all parts of the country – including from the west – whose government is actually hostile to those in power in eastern Libya. Private citizens from western Libya have organized aid convoys with food, water and medicine for their compatriots in the east. And the Prime Minister of the internationally recognized government based in Tripoli, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, never tires of emphasizing how he is committed to helping the people affected by the flood.
There is also a show behind it in politics, says Libyan journalist Hussein Muftah on the Al-Hadath television station. If the unity of the two parts of the country is so important to Dbeibah, then he would have a much easier way to show solidarity.
But I ask him, why don’t you take the initiative – you and your ministers in Tripoli? Why don’t you get on a plane to go to Benghazi? Do you think that the government in the East won’t welcome you?
Politicians promise to come to terms with it
The flood in Darna was able to develop its deadly power primarily because two dams above the city were broken. They had not been maintained for years. Why? Politicians from both sides promise that this will now be clarified.
Prime Minister Dbeibah says it was discovered that there were maintenance contracts for the dams, but they were not carried out. There were millions of dollars in government spending for this. “That means: There actually should have been repair work,” says Dbeibah. “The responsibility is clear.”
Dbeibah called on the public prosecutor’s office to open an investigation. His government has almost no influence in eastern Libya – but allies of General Khalifa Haftar, who is powerful there, have also announced investigations. The political journalist Hussein Muftah does not believe in independent investigation. The main thing for both sides is to appear energetic after the devastating flood.