The content of this article is only used for the first publication of today's headlines, please do not plagiarize.
Libya was hit by Hurricane Daniel, and the city of Derna became the hardest hit. Two dams burst, flooding much of the area, and now the death toll has exceeded 11,400, with tens of thousands more unaccounted for. Despite having Africa's largest oil and gas reserves, Libya has been ravaged by civil war and secession for many years, and its ability to respond to disasters is extremely low. The floods may draw regional and international attention to the Libyan issue.
The municipality of Derna estimates that the number of victims in the city may reach 20,000, while survivors have also left irreparable wounds, with at least 30,000 people losing their homes. The hurricane caused fatal injuries to more than half of the city's residents. Since the beginning of this year, the Mediterranean region has been hit by a rare and intense hurricane. The hurricane, named Daniel, first hit countries such as Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Egypt and Israel. However, the death toll in these countries is not high.
Libya, on the other hand, was the hardest hit, resulting in a large number of deaths. The hurricane was so devastating that it left the outside world confused and questioned. In Libya, the hurricane had a particularly severe impact on the city of Derna, as a direct result of the breach of two dams near the city. These two dams were built with long-term stability and maintenance in mind, making them quite vulnerable.
The fact that the two dams have not been properly maintained since 2002 is an important cause of the breach. In addition, the Libyan government failed to repair the two dams in time, which also made the disaster worse. Therefore, the lesson of this hurricane disaster is that the government and the relevant construction companies must properly maintain and repair the infrastructure to ensure the safety of the public. Instead of focusing on and dealing with problems only after a disaster strikes.
Plans to repair the dam were delayed due to political unrest, leaving Libya's Derna Dam unable to withstand flooding when Hurricane Daniel struck in 2022, leading to catastrophic flooding. Experts have long warned about it, but government officials are simply "taking the money and not doing anything" and ignoring the repair plan. At the same time, the incompetence of Libya's political elite has exacerbated the disaster. In contrast, the timing of an earthquake in Morocco cannot be predicted, but a hurricane in Libya can be predicted hours or days in advance.
The United Nations defines Libya as "the only country in the world that has not yet developed any response to climate change," which is one of the main reasons for the disaster. To make matters worse, the Libyan government has not taken any steps to monitor the actual condition of the dam, nor has it warned or evacuated residents of potentially affected areas. Flooding in the Libyan city of Derna, has left tens of thousands of people killed, injured and missing.
While the local mayor claimed to have ordered evacuations before disaster struck, experts noted that local security authorities told citizens not to leave and imposed a curfew. This chaos stems from the fragmentation of Libya's political situation, the formation of two de facto regimes that send contradictory messages to the population. Not only that, Libya's infrastructure construction is also facing major problems, and the difficulty of coordinating the divided government makes the rescue and response work after the disaster more difficult.
The Libyan government has set up an investigation team to investigate the causes of the collapse of the two dams in Derna, an investigation that may involve senior officials of both the eastern and western regimes. More than a week has passed since the floods in Libya, but their effects are still ongoing. Delna Mayor Gacy has reportedly been suspended and is under investigation. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) noted that the natural disaster was an "unprecedented humanitarian crisis" fraught with enormous challenges.
The floods hit Libya's increasingly fragile state capacity, with the hardest-hit areas like Derna lacking drinking water, food, electricity, fuel, and communications wiped out in raging floods. In addition, due to the lack of professional teams to assist in handling, claiming and burying, the bodies of the victims are piled up on the streets, increasing the possibility of disease transmission and even causing epidemics. Five days after the floods, the number of poisoning incidents contaminated with drinking water has risen to 150.
The United Nations has launched a flash appeal for $71.4 million from donors over the next three months to meet the needs of some 250,000 people affected by the floods. Disaster relief is a very important task that requires the cooperation and coordination of all parties. Recently, there was a disaster in Libya, and many people needed urgent relief.
UNICEF, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other agencies urgently dispatched emergency supplies, and the United States Agency for International Development announced $1 million in humanitarian assistance and dispatched disaster relief response teams. However, the rescue team encountered many problems when entering the disaster area, the road facilities were seriously damaged, transportation was inconvenient, and Libya lacked a unified central government to coordinate and direct the relief work. Political factors have been an overwhelming factor complicating search and rescue and humanitarian response.
Libya's political fragmentation and lack of unified authority have greatly affected relief efforts. Although the opposing governments cooperated in relief efforts, the two regimes were unable to fully synergize and the rescue was ineffective. From the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan to Turkey, the first countries to go to the affected areas are mostly allies that recognize the regime in the east. In this context, the countries that support the Government of National Unity are clearly inadequate in terms of the strength and convenience of the rescue.
In the days following the disaster, supplies remained low in the affected areas. In the absence of a unified political authority, cities represented by Derna are bound to face a long and difficult road to reconstruction. Although survivors were rescued a week after the floods, authorities in the east and west were unable to rebuild the affected areas without foreign aid despite a marked economic downturn and insecure domestic security.
The above content and materials are derived from the Internet, and the author of this article does not intend to target or allude to any real country, political system, organization, race, individual. The author of this article is not responsible for any issues arising above or related to any of the above, nor does it assume any direct or indirect legal liability.