After heavy rains in northeastern Libya forced two dams to fail, dumping additional water on already flooded communities, more than 5,000 people are believed to have died and 10,000 are still missing.
The number of people still missing was provided to media during a briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday by Tamer Ramadan, leader of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies delegation in Libya. . “The death toll is enormous,” he declared.
At least 5,300 people are believed to have died, the Interior Ministry of Libya’s eastern authorities reported on Tuesday. At least 145 of those killed were Egyptians, according to officials in Tobruk, a city in northeastern Libya.
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- Thousands presumed dead in Libya
- Greece affected
- Dam collapse
- ‘Unprecedented floods’
- Turkish planes came to the rescue
- The United States sent an envoy there for help
- The Rescue Team Was Sent By The President Of The United Arab Emirates
Thousands presumed dead in Libya
Credit: AFP
Othman Abduljalil, health minister of Libya’s eastern government, told Libya’s Almasar TV that about 6,000 people remain missing in the eastern city of Derna, which has seen the worst destruction. When he toured the city on Monday, he called the situation “catastrophic.”
Entire neighborhoods are believed to have been razed across the city, according to authorities. According to Osama Aly, spokesman for emergency and ambulance services, Derna’s hospitals are no longer functioning and morgues are overcrowded.
He told CNN that bodies had been dumped on the sidewalk in front of the morgues.
First-hand emergency services are not available. People are currently working to collect the decomposing bodies, according to doctor Anas Barghathy, who is currently volunteering in Derna. After seeing videos of the floods and hearing nothing from their loved ones living in the ruined city of Derna, relatives of those victims told CNN they were afraid.
Greece affected
Credit: Reuters
An extremely powerful low pressure system that caused catastrophic flooding in Greece last week and traveled towards the Mediterranean before evolving into a tropical cyclone known as medicine is what caused the rains that have covered many cities in northeastern Libya.
The terrifying storm comes during a year marked by unprecedented weather disasters and adverse weather conditions, including devastating wildfires and sweltering heat. The temperature of the Mediterranean Sea is substantially above average, which scientists say contributed to the storm’s tremendous rainfall, as ocean temperatures around the world rise uncontrollably as a result of warming pollution. the earth.
According to Karsten Haustein, a climatologist and meteorologist at the University of Leipzig in Germany, “warmer water not only fuels those storms in terms of rainfall intensity, but also makes them more ferocious.”
Due to a protracted political war that has seen a decade-long power struggle between two competing governments, Libya is more susceptible to adverse weather conditions. Unlike its adversary in the east, which is governed by commander Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA) and supports the eastern parliament led by Osama Hamad, the UN-backed Government of National Unity (GNU) is located in Tripoli, in northwestern Libya.
Credit: AP
Derna, which lies about 300 kilometers (190 miles) east of Benghazi, is ruled by Haftar and his eastern government.
The nation’s complicated political landscape “poses challenges for developing risk assessment and communication strategies, coordinating rescue operations, and potentially also maintaining critical infrastructure like dams,” said Leslie Mabon, a systems professor. environmental at The Open University. the Scientific Media Center.
Dam collapse
The two dams that collapsed and allowed water to flow into Derna caused catastrophic devastation, officials said.
The destruction of three bridges and rising floodwaters wiped out entire neighborhoods and were subsequently thrown into the sea, according to Ahmed Mismari, an ENL official.
Strong mud flows carried vehicles and debris, destroying houses in the valleys, according to Aly, a representative of the Emergency and Ambulance Authority.
Aly told CNN that due to extensive damage, the city’s phone connections are down, hampering rescue attempts and preventing employees from entering Derna.
Credit: AP
According to Aly, the authorities did not foresee the magnitude of the disaster.
“Climatic conditions were not well studied; sea water levels and rainfall [were not studied]”, the speed of the wind and there was no evacuation of families that could be in the path of the storm and in the valleys,” he stated.
“Libya was not prepared for an event of that magnitude. That degree of calamity has never happened there before. Even if this is the first time we are faced with such a calamity, we recognize that there were shortcomings,” Aly told the station. Hooray.
‘Unprecedented floods’
The storm looks set to be among the deadliest ever recorded in North Africa.
According to a report by the official Libyan News Agency (LANA), Hamad, head of the eastern administration, declared that the situation in Libya is “unprecedented.”
Floods have reportedly affected several cities, including Al-Bayda, Al-Marj, Tobruk, Takenis, Al-Bayada and Battah, as well as the eastern coast as far as Benghazi, according to ENL spokesperson Mismari. At least 37 residential structures were swept into the water.
Mismari declared: “We are not prepared for such a scale of destruction.”
Credit: AFP
He said: “Libyan authorities need three different types of specialized search groups, including teams to recover bodies from the sea, teams to recover bodies under rubble, and teams to recover bodies from steep valleys after torrents scatter them.”
Although tens of thousands of military personnel have been deployed, Mismari says many of the flood-affected areas remain inaccessible to rescuers.
As search and rescue teams struggle to locate survivors in the rubble and rubble, several nations and human rights organizations have offered help.
In the wake of the accident, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) stated that the nation is facing “an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.”
IRC senior vice president of crisis response Ciaran Donelly said the difficulties in Libya “are immense, with phone lines down and extensive destruction hampering rescue efforts.” After years of conflict and instability, he continued, the situation in the country has been “steadily deteriorating” as a result of climate change.
Turkish planes came to the rescue
Credit: AP
The Turkish Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) reported on Tuesday that a Turkish plane carrying humanitarian aid had arrived in Libya.
According to the state-run Anadolu Agency, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared on Tuesday that his nation would send 168 search and rescue teams, as well as humanitarian aid, to Benghazi.
According to Tuesday’s announcement by the country’s Civil Protection Department, Italy will send a civil defense team to assist in rescue efforts.
The United States sent an envoy there for help
Ambassador Richard Norland, the US special envoy to Libya, made a formal declaration of humanitarian need, according to the US embassy in Tripoli.
This “would authorize the United States to provide advance funding to support relief efforts in Libya. We are working together with UN partners and the Libyan government to determine how to best direct official US assistance,” the statement on X reads. , formerly known as Twitter. .
The Rescue Team Was Sent By The President Of The United Arab Emirates
Credit: AP
According to a state news agency, the President of the United Arab Emirates, Zayed Al Nahyan, has ordered the dispatch of relief and search and rescue teams while expressing his condolences to those affected by the disaster.
Osama Askar, chief of staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces, led a military mission that President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi sent to Libya on Tuesday to oversee the delivery of logistical and humanitarian aid.
According to a statement from the World Meteorological Organization citing the Libyan National Meteorological Center, the storm peaked on Monday in northeastern Libya.
The storm in Libya comes after disastrous flooding in many other regions of the world, such as southern Europe and Hong Kong.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn