Chantrelle, maintain “permanent contact” with the Libyan Red Crescent and intend to deliver humanitarian aid, including 400 body bags and 450 medical kits.
The deputy director of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) programs for Libya stated this Thursday that, given the magnitude of the humanitarian disaster caused by the floods in Libyan territory, the main priority is to manage the issue of the thousands of bodies.
The first need is the management of corpses. [para evitar epidemias]. There is a great need for body bags, but also to care for the injured,” says Matthieu Chantrelle in an MSF statement issued from Tobruk, 160 kilometers east of Derna, the city most affected by the floods, and 1,260 kilometers also to the east. east of Tripoli. .
MSF, Chantrelle added, maintains “permanent contact” with the Libyan Red Crescent, the main humanitarian assistance entity at this time in Derna, and intends to continue this Thursday to this city to deliver humanitarian aid, between 400 body bags and 450 medical kits to treat injured people and provide medical care.
Sunday’s “catastrophic flooding,” as Chantrelle described it, caused almost 7,000 deaths and more than 10,000 missingaccording to updated reports from the Libyan authorities, although a mayor of Derna admitted that the number of fatalities could exceed 20,000 in this city alone.
Floods in Libya. Bodies continue to wash up on the shore and rescuers are calling for more body bags. The authorities fear epidemics
The head of MSF, leading a team of doctors and nurses from the humanitarian organization, stated that, according to information obtained from the Libyan Red Crescent, Derna is divided into two parts, due to the amount of water caused by the river that bathes the city. The city overflowed after bad weather caused the destruction of two nearby dams.
The information and observations made by the MSF team indicate that local solidarity is already mobilized, as is usual in this type of disaster. Given the magnitude of this disaster, MSF estimates that medical structures have been damaged and that access to healthcare needs to be restored for those who remain in the area and for people who were forced to move due to the flooding, estimated at about 30,000 people. Chantrelle said.
The head of MSF in Libya also highlighted the urgent need to send shelter, food and other essential goods, especially hygiene items.
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As soon as the delegation manages to cover the approximately 160 kilometers between Tobruk and Derna by road, and after delivering humanitarian aid, it will help assess the situation in the local field hospitals created in the meantime, as well as medical needs. to start the operation as soon as possible.
Source: Observadora
