2023-09-15 22:14:39
According to media reports, dozens of children in Libya have fallen ill due to contaminated water following the floods in the badly affected city of Darna. The head of the National Center for Disease Control, Haider al-Sajih, told the Al-Wasat news site on Friday. The 55 children came from families displaced by the floods. In the city, drinking water mixed with wastewater. The situation in the disaster area remained unclear.
On Friday, a plane carrying medical equipment and food took off from the western capital Tripoli. According to the local Ministry of Health, containers with medicines were also sent east. Libya is effectively divided with two hostile governments in the west and in the east of the country. Rescuers continued to search for victims under rubble, on the coast and in the sea. Relief supplies were also sent to Libya by land and sea from neighboring Egypt. Large inscriptions on the trucks read: “From the people of Egypt to the people of Libya.”
Meanwhile, a member of a military-medical convoy in Darna, Hisham al-Malti, described the general situation as catastrophic. The rescue was accelerated by the arrival of international helpers. Nevertheless, bodies would decompose quickly following the days that had already passed since the floods. Because the deceased are buried quickly, identification of the victims is neglected, making it difficult to arrive at a conclusive and reliable death toll.
Until Friday, there were still contradictory information regarding the number of deaths. Up to 20,000 deaths are feared in hard-hit Darna. Rescue teams also face daunting logistical challenges as they race once morest time and try to find survivors.
The spokesman for the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA), Ahmed al-Mismari, spoke of powerful floods that had swept away roads and bridges. The village of Wardija has completely disappeared from the map. “We have no experience with natural disasters,” said Al-Mismari.
Powerful General Khalifa Haftar’s self-proclaimed LNA is not a state army, but rather an informal network of armed groups. They control eastern Libya, where they have set up a kind of police state, and earn money from smuggling migrants to Europe. Haftar is supported by Russia and the United Arab Emirates.
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