International aid is slowly starting to reach the devastated port city of Derna as questions are raised over how as many as 20,000 people may have perished when Storm Daniel hit the northern coast of Libya on Saturday night.
Ten thousand people had been declared missing by official aid agencies such as the Libyan Red Crescent, but the new, ominous higher estimate of 20,000 deaths came from the director of al-Bayda medical centre, Abdul Rahim Maziq.
The “sea is constantly dumping dozens of bodies”, said Hichem Abu Chkiouat, the minister of civil aviation in the administration that runs eastern Libya, adding that reconstruction would cost billions of dollars.
But the impression remains that the international emergency aid operation has been slow to spring into action with attention focused on the earthquake in Morocco, and experts taking time to realise the scale of the disaster.
Political infighting in Libya has already started, with those in power seeking to avoid blame.Musa al-Koni, a member of the Libyan presidential council, said “it had not been expected that this hurricane would be this strong and destructive to this extent, especially since the country had not witnessed such devastating storms before”.
Maj Gen Ahmed al-Mismari, a spokesperson for the Libyan National Army, which dominates in the east, said its units acted within the first hours of the storm’s arrival and carried out their duty to the fullest extent.
The original article contains 1,077 words, the summary contains 233 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
International aid is slowly starting to reach the devastated port city of Derna as questions are raised over how as many as 20,000 people may have perished when Storm Daniel hit the northern coast of Libya on Saturday night.
Ten thousand people had been declared missing by official aid agencies such as the Libyan Red Crescent, but the new, ominous higher estimate of 20,000 deaths came from the director of al-Bayda medical centre, Abdul Rahim Maziq.
The “sea is constantly dumping dozens of bodies”, said Hichem Abu Chkiouat, the minister of civil aviation in the administration that runs eastern Libya, adding that reconstruction would cost billions of dollars.
But the impression remains that the international emergency aid operation has been slow to spring into action with attention focused on the earthquake in Morocco, and experts taking time to realise the scale of the disaster.
Political infighting in Libya has already started, with those in power seeking to avoid blame.Musa al-Koni, a member of the Libyan presidential council, said “it had not been expected that this hurricane would be this strong and destructive to this extent, especially since the country had not witnessed such devastating storms before”.
Maj Gen Ahmed al-Mismari, a spokesperson for the Libyan National Army, which dominates in the east, said its units acted within the first hours of the storm’s arrival and carried out their duty to the fullest extent.
The original article contains 1,077 words, the summary contains 233 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!