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France may begin construction of a field hospital in Derna, Libya. More than 30 tons of equipment and around fifty personnel were dispatched.
Published on September 17, 2023 08:00
Reading time: 1 min
An injured rescue worker is treated by doctors in Derna, eastern Libya, September 16, 2023. (STRINGER/EPA)
The third French civil defense aircraft was able to land in Libya on the night of Saturday, September 16th to Sunday, September 17th. A week ago, the east of the country was hit by powerful Storm Daniel, causing deadly floods. The latest UN report shows at least 11,300 dead and 10,100 missing in the city of Derna alone. The disaster also claimed 170 lives in other places in eastern Libya.
A delayed landing
The landing of this third aircraft, scheduled for Thursday September 14th, was delayed for administrative reasons. The French Civil Defense had not received permission to fly over Libyan territory. This plane brings material sent from France for the construction of the field hospital. There were also 30 French soldiers on board.
After more than 48 hours of waiting, a civil security department arrived in Derna at around 2 a.m. to set up the field hospital on the site west of the city of 100,000 inhabitants. “The city of Derna was particularly hard hit by the breach of the two dams. The city was divided into three parts: Help is currently being organized in the western part. We are very close to the flooded area,” explains Captain William from Franceinfo, operations department officer.
>> Floods in Libya: Given the health risk, the country must bury its dead as quickly as possible
“We are unloading all the material and then it will take us about ten hours to assemble the entire structure,” he explained around 2 a.m. This field hospital must therefore open at 12 p.m. on Sunday, September 17th. “It’s the little ants that get to work. “Everyone is pitching in so that we can take in our first patients as quickly as possible,” he says in the French command area, because this operation takes place in a complex security context.
53 doctors, anesthetists, surgeons, midwives, nurses, pharmacists and logisticians have been mobilized on site. France sent more than 30 tons of equipment to Libya.
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