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Libya declares emergency as Storm Daniel kills 150
At least 150 people have died after a powerful storm caused severe flooding in eastern Libya, an official has said.
Storm Daniel made landfall in the North African nation over the weekend, prompting authorities to declare a state of extreme emergency. Last week, it killed a dozen people in Europe. Seven Libyan army personnel have gone missing during ongoing rescue efforts.
Officials in eastern Libya have imposed a curfew, while schools and shops have been ordered to close.
“At least 150 people were killed as a result of flooding and torrential rains left by storm Daniel in Derna, the Jabal al-Akhdar region and the suburbs of Al-Marj,” Mohamed Massoud, a spokesman for the Benghazi-based administration in Libya, told French news agency AFP.
Storm Daniel has affected the eastern cities of Benghazi and Sousse, as well as Derna and Al-Marj. The western city of Misrata was also among those hit by the floods.
Unverified videos of the storm have been circulating online, including a clip showing torrents of floodwater sweeping a man away. Other footage shows drivers trapped on their car roofs.
Alongside schools and shops, four major oil ports closed because of the storm.
The prime minister of the rival, internationally recognised government in the capital Tripoli, Abdulhamid Dbeiba, said on Sunday he had directed all state agencies to “immediately deal” with the damage and floods, while the United Nations in Libya said it was following the storm closely and would “provide urgent relief assistance in support of response efforts at local and national levels”.
Libya has been divided between two rival administrations since 2014, following the killing of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Last week, Storm Daniel struck Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, killing more than a dozen people. It is is expected to reach western Egypt on Monday.
Climate scientists have warned that global warming means more water evaporating during the summer, leading to more intense storms.
(BBC)
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his government to begin direct talks with Lebanon, he said in a statement on Thursday.
Netanyahu said the talks would focus on the disarmament of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese political and militant group, and establishing peaceful relations.
A US State Department official confirmed it would host a meeting next week “to discuss ongoing ceasefire negotiations with Israel and Lebanon”.
Lebanese officials called for a ceasefire before the talks begin, but Netanyahu in a subsequent address to residents of northern Israel said: “There is no ceasefire in Lebanon.”
The Israeli military continued to strike Lebanon on Thursday – targeting what it described as Hezbollah rocket launch sites in the south. It also issued a new evacuation warning for residents in the southern suburbs of the capital, Beirut.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on X that this included the Jnah area, which includes two major hospitals.
“At this time, no alternative medical facilities are available to receive approximately 450 patients from the two hospitals (including 40 patients in the ICU), rendering their evacuation operationally unfeasible,” he said.
Among those being treated at the hospitals, Tedros added, were some of the 1,150 people that Lebanon’s health ministry said were wounded in Wednesday’s massive wave of Israeli strikes. At least 303 people were killed.
Tedros also said that the headquarters of the Ministry of Public Health, which “hosts five shelters accommodating more than 5,000 people”, is in the evacuation area.
That ceasefire began with confusion over whether Lebanon, Israel’s second front, was to be included. Iranian officials and mediators from Pakistan said it was, US and Israeli officials said clearly that it was not.
Amid the confusion, the wave of Israeli strikes on Lebanon – the heaviest since the conflict began six weeks ago – prompted Iran to declare that Israel was break8ng the terms of the ceasefire, once again halt passage of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, and to threaten retaliatory strikes.
Israel’s military continues to occupy a large part of the south of Lebanon, where it has destroyed villages in recent days. Without a commitment to a temporary ceasefire at least, it is not clear how productive talks could proceed between the two sides.
(BBC)
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