HUMANITARIAN TRAGEDY IN LIBYA

WITH 10,000 MISSING

AFTER THE STORM DANIEL

Terrential rains and floods this weekend have given way to scenes of devastation in eastern Libya. The heavy human toll continues to rise as bad weather caused by storm Daniel caused the collapse of two dams during the night from Sunday to Monday, south of the coastal town of Derna, now partly engulfed by the waves. Damage was also reported in Benghazi, Sousse, El Beïda and Al Marj.

“We do not have final figures” at the moment, Tamer Ramadan, head of the Libyan delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, declared Tuesday during a press briefing. “The number of missing is close to 10,000 ".

The town of Derna devastated

An eastern government employee who arrived in Derna on Tuesday says at least a quarter of the city is destroyed. Entire neighborhoods have disappeared, giving way to sticky orange mud. It was carried by the torrents of water which poured down before disappearing into the sea. The sea, which had turned the color of mud, was throwing up bodies.

“Entire neighborhoods” of Derna were swept away, Ahmed al-Mismari, a spokesman for the Syrian National Army, said Monday. More than 2,000 people were then presumed dead, a number “likely to increase massively”.

“The city of Derna is devastated and needs international intervention and the opening of a maritime corridor because all access roads to the city are cut,” Ahmed Amdourd, a member of the municipal council, called on Monday. , on social networks. Telephone and internet communications initially stopped working, before being partially restored.

Emergency help

Forty-eight hours after the tragedy, help arrived in trickles in Derna, a town which had some 100,000 inhabitants before the disaster. The stricken city is no longer totally isolated as in the first hours of the tragedy. But the aid, coming from Benghazi, must bypass the city by the southern road, which considerably lengthens the journey.

The support dispatch is slowly starting to come together. A plane carrying 14 tons of supplies, medicines, equipment, body bags and 87 members of medical and paramedical staff left Tripoli towards Benghazi, 300 km from Derna, the government of national unity led by Abdel Hamid announced on Tuesday Dbeibah.

The disinterest of international donors ?

General Khalifa Haftar, head of the army which controls the east of the country, supported by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, also mentioned sending emergency aid. Libyan territory has been divided for several years between areas controlled by the internationally recognized government of Dbeibah, based in Tripoli, and the troops in the east of General Haftar

President Al-Sissi's Egypt announced the sending of humanitarian aid to Libya, but also to Morocco ravaged by an earthquake on Friday. Turkish rescue teams also arrived in the city on Tuesday, according to Libyan television channel Al-Masar.

“We hope to launch assistance operations as quickly as possible but our response will depend on the funds we manage to raise,” explains Ahmed Bayram, in charge of preparing the response to the crisis at the Norwegian Refugee Council. “Our main fear is the disinterest of international donors regarding the situation in Libya. »

This dramatic event is directly linked to storm Daniel. This subtropical Mediterranean cyclone hit Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria a week ago before moving towards Libya. This storm is the fault of an "omega blockage", due to the shape similar to the Greek letter Ω

A phenomenon that moves

It is characterized by an anticyclone in the center, with very high temperatures, those which plagued France for several days. On the extremities, we find significant rain and cool temperatures. The dynamics of the Iberian cold drop are impressive, explaining the torrential rains over Spain and the associated floods. The same goes for Turkey and Greece. The same phenomenon has since moved to Libya.

Libya's National Meteorological Center said the storm reached its peak in northeastern Libya on September 10, with strong winds gusting between 70 and 80 km/h at maximum. Torrential rains averaged 150 to 240mm per hour, with up to 414mm of precipitation locally, a record.

The collapse of the two water retention dams in Wadi Derna

In the stricken city, anger begins to rise. Photos are circulating showing the dilapidated condition of the two water retention dams in Wadi Derna – the wadi that runs through the town of Derna, on the east coast of the Mediterranean – which have failed. Powerful torrents then destroyed the bridges and swept away entire neighborhoods with their inhabitants on either side of the wadi, before pouring into the sea. More than the rain caused by storm Daniel, it was the water from these dams which is responsible for the destruction of part of the port city, according to specialists.