Libya floods: The United Nations says most of the casualties could have been avoided, with thousands more feared dead

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The United Nations said that most of the deaths occurred in the floods that tore through the region Via Libya It was “avoidable” as aid workers struggle to deliver vital aid in a stifled humanitarian effort Political divisions And the debris from the disaster.

At least 5,000 people have been killed in Libya, Doctors Without Borders said on Thursday, revising previous estimates of 8,000. The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday that thousands more were feared missing after buildings were “destroyed”. The entire city when a seven-meter high wave hit the northern coastal city of Derna.

Unprecedented rains hit cities in the North African country last week, rupturing two dams in the country’s northeast and sending a deluge of water to Derna, which saw the worst of the devastation.

“If there had been a meteorological service functioning normally, warnings would have been issued and emergency management would also have been able to carry out evacuations of people and we would have avoided most of the human casualties,” Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the UN World Meteorological Organization, told reporters at a press conference in Geneva on Thursday.

“Of course, we cannot completely avoid economic losses, but we could also have minimized those losses by providing appropriate services,” Talas added.

Tlass said that the World Meteorological Organization tried to interact with Libyan officials about improving these mechanisms, but because “the security situation in the country is very difficult, it is difficult to go there.”

Libya has been witnessing political turmoil since the outbreak of civil war in 2014, and now has two competing governments, the government supported by the eastern parliament in Benghazi and the internationally recognized government in Tripoli.

Each has reported conflicting casualty figures following the country’s catastrophic floods. CNN is unable to independently verify the number of dead or missing.

The head of the ICRC delegation in Libya said that it would take “several months, and perhaps years” for the residents of Derna to recover from the extent of the damage, after a seven-meter wave hit the northern coastal city this week.

“This disaster was violent and brutal. A 7-meter wave destroyed buildings and swept infrastructure into the sea. Now family members are missing, bodies are returning to shore, and homes have been destroyed,” Jan Fredes said.

“It will take many months, perhaps years, for the population to recover from this massive level of damage.”

The ICRC had a team in Derna to support families with small economic activities when floodwaters swept through the city, adding that it would distribute 6,000 body bags to forensic teams in the eastern city of Benghazi “to ensure that the dead are treated in a dignified manner.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross said access to flood-affected areas remains a “major challenge” because roads have been destroyed.

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“A huge wave, as high as a six-story building or more, swept the entire country like a single tsunami,” former Libyan Health Minister Reda Al-Okali told CNN’s Becky Anderson on Wednesday.

Khaled Al-Shuwaihed, a Libyan citizen, said that the situation in Derna “was a disaster.”

“It was a disaster,” Al-Shuwaihed told Reuters on Thursday. “All my friends died.”

“One of my friends was initially filming from the top of the valley, my friend was filming, and he died. Someone named Nasser Fattouri and his children (they are said to be dead) but these are all rumors until this moment, and nothing has been confirmed. “One of my friends and his five children, only one of whom we found.”

Human rights activists said more gravediggers are urgently needed in Derna, as they struggle to contain the number of bodies needing burial.

Abu Bakr Al-Rifadi told the official Libyan News Agency, “Flood waters caused the city of Derna to be divided into western and eastern halves.”

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Ali Al-Ghazali, director of the Namaa Organization in Derna, said that the floods destroyed at least 25% of the city.

The city center — where all the shops, clinics, schools, main roads and historical sites are located — “was the hardest hit,” he told CNN.

“It has been completely destroyed. Right now, foreign teams are in the city to try to help. But unfortunately, there are too many bodies in the streets. Now, on the third day, most of the bodies are decomposing. The smell of death is in the air,” Al-Ghazali added.

“I lost relatives in the floods. My wife’s first cousins. Entire families were killed. My wife is undergoing cancer treatment. After the floods, we moved her to Benghazi so she could continue her treatment.

Medical volunteers said they were alarmed by the scale of the humanitarian disaster in Derna, where aid began arriving slowly on Thursday amid fears of waterborne diseases.

The United Nations International Organization for Migration said on Wednesday that more than 30,000 people were displaced in Derna. Meanwhile, bodies piled up near defunct health facilities, despite the need for treatment for survivors of the disaster.

Khaled Hamed, general director of a Libyan non-governmental organization, said that the donations are insufficient for the number of people who need treatment.

“The first step was easy, we collected money from equipment and donations from inside and outside the organization. Hamed told Reuters, “We did not expect people to sympathize with us to this extent, and thank God we received very good support.”

“This is a drop in the ocean of the needs we have for Derna, but we saw while coming here that people are coming here from different cities in Libya, from Misrata, Tripoli, Zawiya, from every city.”

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The Libyan Ports and Maritime Transport Authority said that the Derna seaport on Thursday became available for ships with a draft of no less than 6.5 meters to deliver humanitarian aid to the severely affected area.

The statement said that a committee has been formed to improve operations at the port, adding that the primary goal is to speed up the delivery of aid to the region.

The Ministry of Transport is in charge of the internationally recognized government in Tripoli, western Libya, led by Dabaiba.

International leaders from countries including Tunisia, Turkey, Algeria, Italy and Saudi Arabia have pledged donations, but questions remain about how aid will reach parts of Libya controlled by rival powers.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday that at least $71.4 million was needed to respond to about 884,000 people affected by the floods. A combination of pre-existing humanitarian conditions, Libya’s dire socio-economic situation and logistical constraints are hampering relief efforts.

The World Health Organization will release $2 million from its emergency fund, according to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The World Food Program said on Thursday that it had begun distributing food to more than 5,000 displaced families. Earlier this week, at least 2,000 people who fled from Derna to Benghazi received aid from LibAid, a partner of the World Food Programme.

The leader of eastern Libya, Osama Hamad, said that his government has allocated 10 billion Libyan dinars (about 2.1 billion dollars) from its emergency budget to support the affected areas.