Aid organisations such as Islamic Relief and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have warned that in the coming days, Derna could experience the spread of disease as well as grave difficulties in delivering aid to those most in need.
After two dams burst under the pressure of torrential rains caused by Storm Daniel, homes in Derna were flooded and thousands of people washed into the sea.
Islamic Relief warned of a “second humanitarian crisis” after the flood, pointing to the “growing risk of water-borne diseases and shortages of food, shelter and medicine.”
Salah Aboulgasem, Islamic Relief’s Deputy Director of partner development, disclosed, “Thousands of people don’t have anywhere to sleep and don’t have food.”
“In conditions like this, diseases can quickly spread as water systems are contaminated. The city smells like death. Almost everyone has lost someone they know.”
Salah Aboulgasem
According to the International Organisation for Migration, over 38,640 people had been left homeless in eastern Libya, 30,000 of them in Derna alone.
MSF, on the other hand, disclosed that it was deploying teams to the east to assess water and sanitation.
Manoelle Carton, MSF’s Medical Coordinator in Derna, described efforts to coordinate aid as “chaotic.”
“With this type of event, we can really worry about water-related disease,” Carton said.
However, the Red Cross and the World Health Organization (WHO) pointed out on Friday, September 15, 2023, that contrary to widespread belief, the bodies of victims of natural disasters rarely pose a health threat.
The organisations issued a joint statement urging Libyans to stop burying the dead in mass graves.
Meanwhile, rescue teams continued their search for bodies on Saturday, September 16, 2023, nearly a week after the inundation killed more than 11,000 people. Sadly, hopes of finding survivors have begun to fade.
Libyan authorities have largely sealed off Derna from civilians in an effort to give space to the emergency aid workers and amid concern of contamination of standing water.
Salem Al-Ferjani, Director General of the ambulance and emergency service in eastern Libya, announced that only search and rescue teams would be allowed to enter parts of the town most affected by the flooding.
Many citizens have already left the town voluntarily.
Claire Nicolet, who heads the emergencies department of the Doctors Without Borders(MSF) aid group, stated that massive aid efforts were still needed, including urgent psychological support for those who lost their families.
She emphasized that the burial of bodies is still a significant challenge, despite some progress in coordinating search and rescue efforts and the distribution of aid.
The UN launched an appeal for more than $71m to assist hundreds of thousands in need and warned that the “extent of the problem” remains unclear.
In addition, it called for coordination between Libya’s two rival administrations; the UN-backed, internationally recognised government in Tripoli and one based in the disaster-hit east.
Ahmed al-Mesmari, the spokesperson for east-based military strongman, Khalifa Haftar, also cited “enormous needs for reconstruction.”
General Prosecutor Assures Libyans Of Investigation Into Disaster
In other developments, Libya’s Attorney General, Al-Siddiq Al-Sour, disclosed that prosecutors would investigate the collapse of the two dams, which were built in the 1970s, as well as the allocation of maintenance funds.
He noted that prosecutors would investigate local authorities in the city, as well as previous governments.
“I reassure citizens that whoever made mistakes or negligence, prosecutors will certainly take firm measures, file a criminal case against him and send him to trial.”
Al-Siddiq Al-Sour
Al-Sour called on residents who have missing relatives to report to a forensic committee that works on documenting and identifying retrieved bodies.
“We ask citizens to cooperate and quickly proceed to the committee’s headquarters so that we can finish the work as quickly as possible,” he said.
It is, however, unclear as to how such an investigation can be carried out in the North African country.
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