Humanitarian aid
Floods in Libya: First aid delivery from THW arrived – UN launches appeal for donations for survivors
Rescue teams from various aid organizations flew to Libya to help those affected by the floods.
©MSF/DPA
Thousands of people have lost their homes in the flood disaster in Libya, and many people have no access to clean drinking water or food. And caring for those affected is complicated. –
Four days after the devastating floods in eastern Libya, the first delivery of relief supplies from the Technical Relief Agency (THW) reached the disaster area. A plane with 17 tons of material on board had landed in Benghazi, the Bundeswehr Air Force said on Thursday evening in the online service X, formerly Twitter.
The Air Force had previously announced that two of its aircraft would bring “more than 30 tons of material from the Technical Relief Agency” from Wunstorf in Lower Saxony to the disaster area in Libya.
The THW said on its website that the two planes destined for Libya had loaded 100 tents with lighting, 1,000 camp beds, 1,000 blankets, 1,000 sleeping mats, 1,000 water filters and 80 power generators.
The rescue teams in the affected region face enormous logistical challenges. The floods have washed away access roads to the particularly hard-hit port city of Darna, and important bridges are buried under masses of mud. The east of the city in particular was further cut off from the rest, eyewitnesses on site reported to the German Press Agency.
Communication connections were partially broken. Other places in the civil war country also rely on support. According to the emergency relief office’s assessment United Nations, hundreds of thousands of people urgently need help.
Thousands without food and shelter
Meanwhile, the World Food Program (WFP) has started supplying food to thousands of families in Libya. The organization said it has begun providing urgently needed food aid to more than 5,000 families. “These devastating floods have struck a country where a deep political crisis has already left so many people in a desperate situation. In addition to the tragic loss of life, thousands of families in Darna are now without food and shelter,” said WFP Executive Director, Cindy McCain.
In an emergency appeal, the UN Humanitarian Office called for emergency aid worth $71.4 million (around €67 million) “to meet the urgent needs of 250,000 most affected Libyans.” The situation in the northeast of the country is critical. Almost 900,000 people in five provinces of the country lived in areas that were affected “directly and to varying degrees” by Storm Daniel and the flash floods it triggered.
The situation is “shocking and heartbreaking”
“Daniel” hit the North African country on Sunday and caused heavy rain. Two dams burst near the city of Darna, and entire quarters of the city, which has a population of 100,000, were literally washed into the sea. “We expect a very high number of victims,” Mayor Abdel-Moneim al-Gheithy told the Arabic television channel Al-Arabija. Based on the destroyed city districts, “there could be 18,000 to 20,000 dead.”
UN emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths said: “Entire neighborhoods have disappeared from the map.” The situation is “shocking and heartbreaking.” The most urgent task now is to prevent the spread of diseases. According to Yann Fridez, head of the Libya delegation to the International Red Cross, it could take “many months, perhaps years, for local residents to recover from this huge level of destruction.”
In view of the devastating natural disasters in Libya and Morocco, where a severe earthquake killed thousands a week ago, the German Red Cross (DRK) is calling for donations. DRK President Gerda Hasselfeldt told the “Rheinische Post” (Friday): “We know that the German population is also very concerned about the earthquake in Morocco and the flood disaster in Libya and that there is a desire to offer support to the local people , as well.”