Shrouds on a table in Aldaher Alahamer, mass grave site of the victims of Storm Daniel, near Derna, Libya, September 21, 2023. NISSIM GASTELI FOR “DIE WELT” NISSIM GASTELI FOR “DIE WELT”
“I think I have every opportunity to relieve and stabilize Libya. » On September 11, Elseddik Haftar, the eldest son of Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the strongman of eastern Libya, announced in Paris that he wants to run in the presidential elections scheduled for 2023 but constantly postponed, confirming this as the family clan prepares prepared successor to the octogenarian. At the same time, the city of Derna was swallowed by the waves.
Twelve days later, on Saturday September 23, a South African rescuer summed up the scale of the disaster that struck the city: “In thirty years of external intervention, I have never seen anything like it.” » The head of those dispatched from Pretoria Mission was about to leave the country and was in the process of evacuating one of the few professional rescue teams that had traveled from abroad to find survivors.
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Two weeks after Cyclone Daniel passed through, Derna is in nothing but pain. The population is left physically and psychologically to fend for itself, struggling with bankrupt institutions in a country divided between two governments that absolve themselves of responsibility in the face of tragedy. The West and the East, which are recognized by the international community and each have their own administration and militias, make coordinating aid more complex.
Unbearable blur
In fact, relief operations rested on the shoulders of an army of civilian volunteers who came together in convoys from villages and towns from across the country. Using their bare hands and shovels, they dig through a sea of mud and debris in search of survivors and bodies. The survivors, traumatized and wandering the streets, must wait for news of their loved ones, who are being carried away by the thousands. In the week following the disaster on the night of September 10th to 11th, the number of identified remains rose and fell, according to conflicting reports from authorities. Most victims, whether buried or presumed “disappeared,” are condemned to anonymity: an unbearable and traumatic blur for the living.
You have to travel around twenty kilometers to reach the seemingly unspeakable: the mass grave in Derna. Isolated and far from the city, the place is a symbol of the confusion and opacity surrounding the question of the number of victims.
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There is neither peace nor contemplation there: the shrill retreat alarms of the bulldozers busy digging a new trench drown out the conversations. While the official toll has changed little in a week – 3,875 dead according to the authorities’ latest report on Monday – we continue to see dozens of anonymous people buried here: 120 in the hours before our visit on September 21st.
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