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Desperation in Libya – emergency workers have a fatal accident
Rescue teams are looking for victims. photo
© Yousef Murad/AP/dpa
The smell of death hangs heavily over Darna, bodies are still being recovered. Help has started, but reaching people is difficult. A serious accident overshadows the relief effort.
The rescue work was overshadowed by a serious accident: According to the authorities in eastern Libya, at least four Greek emergency workers and three members of a Libyan family were killed. 19 Greek rescuers were on their way to the badly damaged port city of Darna when their minibus collided with the car of a family of five. A total of 15 people were injured, some seriously.
According to a BBC reporter, the pungent smell of rotting corpses hangs over the heavily destroyed port city of Darna. Concrete pieces, tires, refrigerators and cars piled up on the beach and were violently washed into the sea after the dam burst and then washed up again. Dead bodies were still being recovered from the mountains of rubble. 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, but the news is shocking. The UN Emergency Relief Office (OCHA) spoke on Saturday evening of around 11,300 people in Darna and another 10,100 missing. In addition, 170 deaths were reported from other regions in the east of the country. OCHA was referring to the Red Crescent, as Red Cross societies in Muslim countries are often called, but al-Shukri was skeptical. He told the dpa that he did not know the source of the numbers. Official figures only come from the authorities.
Help is difficult to arrive
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 kilometer-long traffic jams, as Caroline Holt, global operations director for the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, reported on the X platform (formerly Twitter).
The distribution of food, medicine, tarpaulins and other things remains difficult. 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. People from Darna are also being admitted to other parts of the country.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 35,000 people have lost their homes in Darna. According to the WHO, around 4,000 deaths had been identified and registered with death certificates by the end of last week.
Fear of spreading disease
Concerned about the spread of diseases such as cholera, the government in the capital Tripoli ordered water companies to distribute drinking water. However, it actually has little influence in the east of the country because a rival government is in power there. However, all politicians have promised to put aside their rivalries and work together in view of the emergency.
The emergency services were not only concerned about the possible spread of disease, but also about landmines and unexploded bombs. By Saturday, around 150 cases of diarrhea had been reported. The reason is contaminated drinking water, said the head of the Center for Disease Control, Haidar al-Sajih.
Storm “Daniel”, which has already caused devastating storms in Greece and elsewhere, hit the coast last Sunday. After extreme rainfall, two dams burst on Monday night. The flood of water washed entire neighborhoods into the sea. Darna had around 100,000 inhabitants before the disaster. The Libyan prosecutor Al-Sedik al-Sur has started an investigation. The dams were said to have cracked and there was said to have been money for maintenance. The public prosecutor now wants to clarify the whereabouts of the money.