The Sunday Mail
On September 10, tropical storm Daniel — an intense Mediterranean hurricane or “medicane” — made landfall in Libya, causing severe flooding in coastal areas resulting in extensive damage.
The city of Derna, which was the hardest hit, has seen at least 20 percent of its infrastructure completely destroyed, and a large number of residents have been swept away by flood waters.
On Monday last week, the Chinese government announced that it would provide US$4,1 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Libya to assist in the rescue efforts.
Western media outlets have been closely following the severe flooding in the North African nation, but many attributed it to climate change and the internal political turmoil in the country.
However, experts have pointed out that such summations fail to recognise the real “culprit” behind the internal division and turmoil in Libya — Western forces, led by the US. Twelve years ago, Western countries conducted a so-called “humanitarian intervention” in Libya, and left the wounds inflicted on the Libyan people.
The resultant scars from the conflict have once again been laid bare for the world to see by the hurricane.
A forgotten city
After making landfall in Libya on September 10, tropical storm Daniel, with fierce winds and sudden heavy rain, caused heavy flash flooding in several north eastern areas of the country, with the coastal city of Derna hardest hit.
The Libyan National Agency for Bridges and Roads said on Monday that 70 percent of infrastructure in the flood-hit areas in eastern Libya was damaged.
In addition, 50 percent of the roads in the region were also damaged, with alternative routes opened in disaster areas to allow traffic flow. The storm has, so far, claimed at least 5 500 lives with another 10 000 reported missing, official statistics showed.
Johr Ali, a Libyan reporter, told the BBC that people in Derna are living through “doomsday.”
Ali said that his entire family had been washed away by the powerful flood waters.
He also told the BBC that a friend found his “nephew dead in the street, thrown away by water from his rooftop.”
The havoc currently being witnessed in Libya today is in stark contrast to what a Global Times reporter saw in the country more than a decade ago.
When the Global Times reporter was in Libya in 2010 and reported on the “Pentapolis of Ancient Greek Colonies” in the Cyrenaica region in the east of the country, Derna was an important stop. Derna was founded over 2 000 years ago and is situated against the backdrop of the Green Mountains, stretching over 100 kilometres along the coast, facing the Mediterranean Sea.
Under Roman rule, it served as a populous and religious centre in the Cyrenaica region.
In modern times, Derna has cemented its place as one of the wealthiest areas in the North Africa.
Due to its unique location at the intersection of the Green Mountains, the sea, and the Sahara Desert, Derna’s climate is warm and humid.
Following the winding mountain road for dozens of kilometres, a spectacular view of Derna, which looks like a “delta” is revealed, when viewed from the top of the mountain road.
Upon entering the city of Derna, the clean streets and well-planned buildings added a layer of orderly beauty to the city.
From the perspective of urban governance, Derna’s level of city management surpassed that of the largest eastern city of Benghazi during the era of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
However, the city which was the seat of an ancient civilisation was unable to withstand the test of the recent brutal natural disaster.
The report published by Yale Climate Connections pointed out that the floods in Libya are a climate and infrastructure catastrophe.
It stated that the catastrophe in Libya is the seventh weather-related disaster to kill at least 500 Africans since 2022, an astonishing 23 percent of Africa’s 30 deadliest weather-related disasters since 1900 have occurred in the last two years.
This ominous figure could well be a harbinger of the future, as higher levels of vulnerability, a growing population, and more extreme weather events from climate change cause an increase in the occurrence of deadly disasters. — theglobaltimes.com.
