Concerns about possible cholera outbreak in Libya

According to the newspaper “Arab News”, the Ministry of Health in Tripoli warned of an infection with the dangerous bacteria. In the severely affected coastal town of Darna, groundwater was polluted by corpses, animal carcasses, garbage and chemical substances, it said. Dozens of children there have fallen ill because of contaminated water.

“We urge people not to go near the wells in Darna,” Health Minister Ibrahim Al-Arabi was quoted as saying. The civil war-torn country is actually divided; in addition to the government in Tripoli, there is a second government in the east of the country. The two camps are enemies and sometimes give contradictory information about the disaster situation in the North African country.

Dozens of children fell ill

The priority for aid operations in Libya is now “shelter, food and important basic medical care because of concerns about cholera and concerns about the lack of clean water,” said UN emergency aid coordinator Martin Griffiths in Geneva. The focus was primarily on the eastern coastal town of Darna. “We are trying to avoid a second disaster there. It is crucial to prevent a health crisis, provide shelter, clean water and food,” Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the United Nations Humanitarian Office, told the BBC.

According to the head of the National Center for Disease Control, Haider al-Sajih, Darna drinking water mixed with sewage. 55 children were ill. They came from families displaced by the floods, the official told the Al-Wasat news site on Friday.

On Friday, a plane carrying medical equipment and food took off from the western capital Tripoli. According to the local Ministry of Health, containers with medicines were also sent east. Libya is effectively divided with two hostile governments in the west and in the east of the country. Rescuers continued to search for victims under rubble, on the coast and in the sea. Relief supplies were also sent to Libya by land and sea from neighboring Egypt. Large inscriptions on the trucks read: “From the people of Egypt to the people of Libya.”

Meanwhile, a member of a military-medical convoy in Darna, Hisham al-Malti, described the general situation as catastrophic. The rescue was accelerated by the arrival of international helpers. Nevertheless, bodies would decompose quickly after the days that had already passed since the floods. Because the deceased are buried quickly, identification of the victims is neglected, making it difficult to arrive at a conclusive and reliable death toll.

Up to 20,000 feared dead

Until Friday, there were still contradictory information about the number of deaths. Up to 20,000 deaths are feared in hard-hit Darna. Rescue teams also face daunting logistical challenges as they race against time and try to find survivors.

The spokesman for the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA), Ahmed al-Mismari, spoke of powerful floods that had swept away roads and bridges. The village of Wardija has completely disappeared from the map. “We have no experience with natural disasters,” said Al-Mismari.

Powerful General Khalifa Haftar’s self-proclaimed LNA is not a state army, but rather an informal network of armed groups. They control eastern Libya, where they have set up a kind of police state, and earn money from smuggling migrants to Europe. Haftar is supported by Russia and the United Arab Emirates.

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