In Libya, one week after the devastating storm and dam collapse disaster, two more dams may be in danger. The UN Emergency Relief Office OCHA expressed concern on Sunday evening about the Jasa Dam between the partially destroyed city of Darna and Benghazi and the Kattara Dam near Benghazi. Reports on the situation are contradictory. According to the authorities, both dams are in good condition and working. According to the authorities, pumps will be installed at the Jasa Dam to take the pressure off the dam, OCHA said.
Two dam failures had caused the worst destruction in the port city of Darna on Monday night. Thousands of people have lost their lives and thousands are still missing. The authorities do not yet have exact figures. The city had around 100,000 inhabitants before the disaster.
The rescue work was overshadowed on Sunday by a serious accident: At least four Greek emergency workers and three members of a Libyan family were killed, according to the authorities in eastern Libya. 19 Greek rescuers were on their way to Darna when their minibus collided with the car of a family of five. 15 people were injured, some seriously.
The number of victims remains unclear
The desperation among the residents is still great. Tens of thousands of people are still waiting for news of their missing relatives and help in need. According to a BBC reporter, the piercing smell of decaying corpses hangs over Darna. Concrete parts, tires, refrigerators and cars piled up on the beach, which had been washed into the sea with force and then washed up again. Dead people are still being recovered from the piles of rubble. According to Taufik al-Shukri, the spokesman for the Red Crescent, survivors were rescued from collapsed buildings on Saturday. How many, he could not say in an interview with dpa.
The number of victims remains unclear a week after the disaster. The UN Emergency Relief Office (OCHA) spoke on Sunday of around 11,300 dead in Darna and another 10,100 missing. In addition, 170 deaths have been reported from other regions in the east of the country. OCHA was referring to the Red Crescent, as Red Cross societies are often called in Muslim countries. But al-Shukri did not know the source for this, as he told dpa. Official figures would only come from the authorities. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 4000,<> victims had been identified by the end of last week and registered with death certificates.
It is true that more and more relief supplies are arriving in the poor North African country, which has been ravaged by years of civil war, via Benghazi airport. But from there to the disaster area it is hundreds of kilometers. Many roads and bridges have been destroyed and convoys of relief supplies are stuck in kilometer-long traffic jams, as Caroline Holt, global head of operations for the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, reported on Platform X (formerly Twitter). The distribution of food, medicines, tarpaulins and other things remains difficult. According to Médecins Sans Frontières, aid workers are pushing for better coordination of operations.
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has come through. In cooperation with the communities in the towns of Shahat and Bayda, it distributed baby food, tents, generators, blankets and water, as the German ambassador to Libya, Michael Ohnmacht, reported to X.
According to estimates by the UN Organization for Migration (IOM), a total of more than 40,000 people have lost their homes. The number is probably much higher. In many of the hard-hit areas, counts have not yet been possible.
Worried about the spread of diseases such as cholera, the government in the capital Tripoli instructed the waterworks to distribute drinking water. As of Saturday, about 150 cases of diarrhea have been reported due to contaminated drinking water, said the head of the Center for Disease Control, Haidar al-Sajih.
The Libyan prosecutor Al-Sedik al-Sur has started investigations into the dam breaches. The dams are said to have had cracks, and money is said to have been allocated for maintenance. The prosecutor now wants to clarify the whereabouts of the funds, as he said.