In Libya, a week after the devastating storm and dam collapse disaster, two more dams may be in danger. The The UN emergency agency OCHA expressed concern on Sunday evening over the Jasa Dam between the partially destroyed city of Derna and Benghazi and the Kattara Dam near Benghazi. Reports about the situation are contradictory. Authorities said both dams were in good condition and functioning. According to the authorities, pumps are being installed at the Jaza Dam to relieve the pressure on the dam, according to OCHA.
Two dam bursts caused the worst destruction in the port city of Derna on the night of last Monday. Thousands of people have died and thousands are still missing. The authorities do not yet have exact figures. Before the disaster, the city had around 100,000 inhabitants.
The rescue work was overshadowed by a serious accident on Sunday: at least four Greek emergency workers and three members of a Libyan family were killed, according to the authorities in eastern Libya. 19 Greek rescuers were on their way to Derna when their minibus collided with the car of a family of five. 15 people were injured, some seriously. The Greek General Staff initially confirmed three deaths late on Sunday evening. Two other members of the rescue team were missing, it said in a message on Facebook.
The desperation among the residents is still great. Tens of thousands of people are still waiting for news about their missing relatives and for help in an emergency. According to a BBC reporter, the pungent smell of rotting corpses hangs over Derna. There were piles of concrete pieces, tires, refrigerators and cars on the beach that had been violently washed into the sea and then washed up again. Dead bodies were still being recovered from the mountains of rubble.
The search for buried victims continues in Derna. Apparently people were still able to be rescued alive from the rubble over the weekend.
(Photo: Yousef Murad/dpa)
According to Taufik al-Shukri, spokesman for the Red Crescent, survivors were also rescued from collapsed buildings on Saturday. He couldn’t say how many in an interview with dpa. The number of victims remains unclear even a week after the disaster. The UN emergency relief office initially spoke of around 11,300 dead in Derna and a further 10,100 missing at the weekend. In addition, 170 deaths were reported from other regions in the east of the country. OCHA referred to the Red Crescent, as Red Cross societies in Muslim countries are often called. But the Red Crescent spokesman said he didn’t know where the numbers came from. In a later version of the situation report, OCHA dropped this information.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 4,000 deaths had been identified and registered with death certificates by the end of the week. More and more aid supplies are arriving through Benghazi Airport in the poor North African country, which has been marked by years of civil war. But it’s hundreds of kilometers from there to the disaster area. Many roads and bridges have been destroyed and convoys carrying relief supplies are stuck in traffic jams that stretch for miles, said Caroline Holt, global operations director for the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, reported on platform X. The distribution of food, medicine, tarpaulins and other things remains difficult.
Egypt sends aircraft carrier as floating hospital
According to Doctors Without Borders, helpers are urging that the operations be better coordinated. The German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) came through. In cooperation with the communities in the towns of Shahat and Bayda, they distributed baby food, tents, generators, blankets and water, as the German ambassador to Libya, Michael Ohnmacht, reported on X.
Egypt is also trying to help on site – and has sent an aircraft carrier to provide medical care to victims of the flood disaster. Again Egypt’s state information service announcedcame the aircraft carrier mistral on the Libyan coast, where it is intended to support the emergency services as a floating hospital. Also the online newspaper The Libya Observer reported citing to Egyptian media about the arrival. Accordingly, the ship has a 900 square meter clinic including modern operating rooms.
Diseases spread through dirty drinking water
According to estimates by the UN Organization for Migration (IOM), a total of more than 40,000 people have lost their homes. The number is probably significantly higher. Counts have not yet been possible in many of the hard-hit areas. Concerned about the spread of diseases such as cholera, the government in the capital Tripoli ordered water companies to distribute drinking water. As of Saturday, about 150 diarrheal illnesses had been reported due to contaminated drinking water, said Center for Disease Control head Haidar al-Sajih.
The Libyan public prosecutor Al-Sedik al-Sur has started an investigation into the dam breaches. The dams were said to have cracked and money was said to have been allocated for maintenance. The public prosecutor now wants to clarify the whereabouts of the money, as he said.
The political situation in Libya is complicated. Two hostile governments – one based in the east of the country, the other in the west – are fighting for power. Since the fall of long-time ruler Muammar al-Gaddafi in 2011, conflicting parties have been fighting over control and there has been a civil war.