Following years of conflict, large-scale disaster in Derna 'goes beyond abilities of Libyan govt'

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00:00Now, exactly one year ago, Storm Daniel unleashed deadly floods in eastern Libya.

00:04The flooding resulted in two dams bursting in the coastal city of Derna.

00:09Over 4,000 people were estimated to have died and according to the United Nations,

00:14thousands of others were either missing or displaced.

00:17The tragedy shown a spotlight on Libya's crumbling infrastructure and the prevailing dysfunction

00:23which exists in the country which is divided between the internationally recognized Tripoli

00:28based government in the west and the rival administration of strongman Khalifa Haftar

00:32over in the east.

00:34We can now bring in Rad Al-Hadeed, acting head of the International Federation of the

00:38Red Cross and Red Crescent in Libya.

00:40Thank you very much for joining us on the program.

00:43Today, what is the situation you're hearing from your teams on the ground in Derna?

00:49Thank you for having me today.

00:51Like, let me take this opportunity first to thank and to appreciate the contribution of

00:56our partners to support our organization that enabled us and the Libyan Red Crescent

01:03to carry out essentially military work throughout the past year.

01:07Like one year ago, families still continue to grapple with the aftermath of losing their

01:13loved ones and their homes and the destruction of a critical infrastructure, including roads,

01:19power and communication networks.

01:21And you rightly said that it was a weak system that led to the vulnerability that resulted

01:29in the massive destruction of the infrastructure that took place in Derna.

01:35The disaster exaggerated an already challenging situation in the country where Libya already

01:42endured years of conflict and experienced a large-scale disaster that goes beyond the

01:48abilities of the Libyan Government and the Libyan Red Crescent.

01:52As you know, prior to the mass displacement of people due to the disaster, eastern Libya

01:58was already home to 46,000 IDPs, as well as numerous migrants.

02:05Like, we are happy to say that Libyan Red Crescent was on the ground immediately following

02:11the disaster, providing critical emergency aid, including search and rescue operations,

02:17first aid and distribution of food, water and shelter materials.

02:22So what has happened since then?

02:23What has happened over the past year?

02:28Our primary objective remains the same.

02:30But we acknowledge that since the onset of this disaster, there has been a lot of progress

02:36made by the local authorities to provide shelter.

02:40And Libyan Red Crescent was fulfilling their auxiliary role to support the local authorities

02:46in providing and continuous – providing bridging emergency to the relief efforts.

02:53We understand that there are a lot of challenges that has not resulted just from the event

02:59itself, because we cannot ignore the fact that the limitations in the operational context

03:06here is affecting dramatically our ability as a humanitarian organization because of

03:14the other factors that are affecting the context here.

03:17However, our primary objective remains to alleviate the human suffering inside Libya.

03:24Rad, I remember last year that in the aftermath of these floods, and you know,

03:28we saw thousands of people displaced.

03:30I remember protests broke out in the city where residents were demanding accountability.

03:35Have they received any accountability?

03:38Well, it is like from us as International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent,

03:43we are working closely with our national partner, Libyan Red Crescent, who maintains

03:47in unity all across the country and has access to all the regions.

03:53So we continue building the capacity of our national partner.

03:58But like, I have to be frankly speaking with you, that we cannot address this humanitarian

04:04situation to ensure purely humanitarian principle services without simultaneously investing

04:11in the long-term development solutions tackling the root causes behind the people's vulnerability

04:17in such fragile, complex, protracted context.

04:20We are working closely, but like the road is still to go to reach really our targets.

04:27So you said you have limitations, you as an NGO face limitations on the ground.

04:33What are some of those limitations?

04:36Well, we cannot ignore the fact that we are operating in a fragile context

04:41where political instability, social economic situation is hindering the ability not just

04:50of the humanitarian community, but the country itself to reach its target to fulfil.

04:56We need to appreciate whatever has been done in the eastern part by the local authorities

05:01in terms of shelter.

05:02But we are talking about at macro level that the way is still to go to ensure that we have

05:09a functional state and a functional civil society organisations that are able to operate

05:16according to the humanitarian principle.

05:19We at the Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent are working closely with the

05:23leader of the Red Crescent to ensure a minimum standards of our humanitarian services are

05:28provided with accountability, not just to the donors, but again to the people who were

05:34affected by this event.

05:36Indeed.

05:37We are going to leave it at that.

05:38Thank you very much for joining us on the program today.

05:41The pleasure was mine to have you.

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