Libya: Medicines, food, household items, body bags to be distributed to thousands of residents after ‘violent, brutal’ floods
Tripoli (ICRC) –– Medicines, food, body bags, first aid kits and household items from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will be distributed to communities in Libya to assist the thousands of families in need after the devastating floods in the country’s northeast.
Additional ICRC teams are being sent to the region to distribute humanitarian assistance. The ICRC is also strengthening its forensics team in Benghazi as it distributes 6,000 body bags to help authorities and the Libyan Red Crescent Society ensure dignified treatment of the dead.
“This disaster was violent and brutal. A wave 7 metres high wiped out buildings and washed infrastructure into the sea. Now family members are missing, dead bodies are washing back up on shore, and homes are destroyed. The city faces immense emotional trauma,” said Yann Fridez, the head of ICRC’s Libya delegation, which had a team in Derna to support families with micro-economic activities when the floodwaters overwhelmed the city.
Kitchen sets, mattresses and hygiene items are to be distributed in Derna in coming weeks jointly with the Libyan Red Crescent Society. Medicines are also being donated to authorities and Libyan Red Crescent in coming days.
A major challenge for humanitarian action is access to the flood-hit areas, as roads have been seriously degraded or destroyed. The ICRC is also evaluating the risk posed by unexploded ordnance and abandoned munition stores in Derna, an additional challenge to residents, emergency responders and authorities now working to alleviate the hardship.
“It’s heartening to see a sense of unity among the population and authorities who are uniting to provide as much assistance as possible. But this is a long road now. It will take many months, maybe years, for residents to recover from this huge level of damage,” Mr Fridez said.
About the ICRC
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a neutral, impartial and independent organization with an exclusively humanitarian mandate that stems from the Geneva Conventions of 1949. It helps people around the world affected by armed conflict and other violence, doing everything it can to protect their lives and dignity and to relieve their suffering, often alongside its Red Cross and Red Crescent partners.
For more information, please contact:
Jessica Moussan, ICRC Dubai, tel +971 504 254 091 jmoussan@icrc.org
Imene Trabelsi, ICRC Lebanon, tel. +961 313 83 53, itrabelsi@icrc.org
Alaa Nayel, ICRC Kuwait, tel: +965 966 73 614, anayel@icrc.org
Crystal Wells, ICRC Geneva, tel: +41 79 642 80 56, cwells@icrc.org
Fatima Sator, ICRC Geneva, tel: +41 79 848 4908, fsator@icrc.org
Christoph Hanger, ICRC Geneva, tel: +41 79 731 04 03, changer@icrc.org
Shuangfeng Zhang, ICRC Beijing, tel: +86 138 100 355 22, szhang@icrc.org
Matthew Morris, ICRC London, +44 7753 809 471, mmorris@icrc.org
Frédéric Joli, ICRC Paris, +33 6 20 49 46 30, fjoli@icrc.org
Elizabeth Shaw, ICRC Washington, +1 202 361 1566, eshaw@icrc.org
