Connect with us

Published

on

A potential cholera outbreak could add to misery in the Libyan city of Derna, where the sheer number of people dead or unaccounted for after a massive flood is overwhelming survivors.

The number of fatalities has soared to 11,300, according to the Libyan Red Crescent, with a further 10,100 reported missing as hopes of finding survivors diminish.

Two Sky News TV crews witnessed horrific scenes after reaching the eastern port city – including the tragic discovery of the body of a young girl, perhaps aged 10 or 11.

Desperate search for survivors continues – latest updates

People look for survivors in Derna, Libya. Pic: AP
Image:
Desperate relatives search for survivors. Pic: AP

The Libyan city of Derna
A general view of the city of Derna is seen on Tuesday, Sept. 12., 2023. Mediterranean storm Daniel caused devastating floods in Libya that broke dams and swept away entire neighborhoods in multiple coastal towns, the destruction appeared greatest in Derna city. (AP Photo/Jamal Alkomaty)
Image:
An aerial view of the Libyan city of Derna. Pic: AP

The United Nations (UN) has warned the country urgently needs equipment to find those trapped in sludge and wrecked buildings – and raised concerns of a cholera outbreak.

“Priority areas are shelter, food, key primary medical care because of the worry of cholera, the worry of lack of clean water,” said UN aid chief Martin Griffiths.

Reports suggest almost a quarter of the city has been washed away and reduced to an apocalyptic wasteland, following a massive flood fed by the breaching of two dams in heavy rains.

More than 38,640 people are displaced in the northeast of the country, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Libya said on Friday.

‘Graveyard’ city smashed by water from ‘dam of death’

Sky’s Africa correspondent Yousra Elbagir, reporting from one of the collapsed dams, said it is now known as “the dam of death“.

Although it has been days since the disaster struck, she said survivors are still in a complete state of shock – with some coming to the site to look at the catastrophe.

“The flood has completely changed their lives,” she said. “One person told me: ‘This is not a natural disaster, this is a catastrophe.'”

Sky News will air a special programme – Libya floods: The city swept away – at midday on Saturday.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Derna’s ‘dam of death’

Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford, reporting from the centre of Derna, said the city was like “one big graveyard”.

“Everywhere you look here – it’s 360° destruction,” she said. “There is a strong smell in the air of corpses.”

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

How the floods cut a swathe through city

“The force of the water was so strong from the two dams which collapsed that the locals say it sounded like an explosion, after explosion, after explosion,” said Crawford.

“Massive tonnes of rocks, whole apartment blocks, were just swept away.

“There are three bridges that have been swept away.

“Building after building has been levelled or smashed through.

“They had – according to those who survived – about 20 minutes to get out of the way of this torrent of water.”

Read more:
Before and after pictures show devastation of Libya floods
What caused sheer scale of destruction in flooded Libyan city?

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

‘Utter devastation’ after torrent’s destruction

‘Someone should pay for these deaths’ after girl’s body found

There was a collective intake of horror when the “unmistakable shape of a small human” was discovered, Crawford added.

It was the body of a young girl – maybe aged 10 or 11.

Witnesses were stunned into silence, she said, describing it as “utterly dreadful”.

Two relief workers raced down with a black body bag and the girl was hurriedly placed inside it.

Damaged areas and buildings, in the aftermath of the floods in Derna, Libya
Image:
Entire neighbourhoods have been washed away

The scene at one of the dams that collapsed in heavy rains and sent a massive flood gushing into the eastern Libyan port city
Image:
The scene at one of the dams that collapsed in heavy rains

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Drone footage shows flood-hit Libya

People searching for relatives say they had plenty of warning about Storm Daniel before it hit.

But what followed was a catastrophic culmination of human errors.

Gandi Mohammed Hammoud, a structural engineer, said it was down to negligence.

He said there had been plenty of warnings from experts about the poor state of the city’s two dams.

“They should have known,” he told Sky News.

Damage from massive flooding is seen in Derna, Libya 
Pic:AP
Image:
Search teams are combing streets, wrecked buildings, and even the sea to look for bodies. Pic: AP

Derna, Libya
Image:
Hopes of finding survivors are fading

Mr Hammoud said he watched as his neighbours and friends screamed in terror as the torrent of water tore apart their homes and flats.

He added: “Someone should pay for these deaths.

“Someone should be held accountable for what happened here.”

Officials have warned unexploded ordnances – remnants of war such as unexploded bombs, mines, shells and grenades – pose a risk for those involved in recovering the dead.

Derna
Image:
The aftermath of the floods


The aftermath of the floods
Image:
Derna has been the worst-affected

Derna, Libya
Image:
Rescuers have been sifting through the wreckage

‘Bodies are littering the streets’

Most of the dead have been buried in mass graves outside Derna, while others are being transferred to nearby towns and cities.

“Bodies are littering the streets, washing back on shore and are buried under collapsed buildings and debris. In just two hours, one of my colleagues counted over 200 bodies on the beach near Derna,” said Bilal Sablouh, regional forensics manager for Africa for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The ICRC has sent a cargo flight to Benghazi with 5,000 body bags.

Rescue and relief operations have also been complicated by political divides in the country, which has been at war since a 2011 uprising toppled long-ruling dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Despite a 2020 ceasefire ending most major warfare, territory remains controlled by rival armed factions.

An internationally recognised Government of National Unity (GNU) is based in Tripoli, in the west, while a parallel administration operates in the east, including Derna.

“The instability, poor governance, corruption and mafia-style politicking, including a network of people-smuggling gangs, have all conspired to make this tragedy,” Crawford added.

Continue Reading

World

US officials to make ‘highly unusual’ visit to Gaza – amid warnings of ‘politically manmade’ famine

Published

on

By

US officials to make 'highly unusual' visit to Gaza - amid warnings of 'politically manmade' famine

Two senior US officials will visit Gaza later today, amid growing concerns about the scale of the humanitarian crisis.

Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee will inspect a food distribution site – and report back to the president immediately.

Our US correspondent David Blevins says the visit “is not unprecedented but is highly unusual … due to obvious security concerns and political sensitivities”.

He added: “I think it reflects the growing concern there is here in the United States about the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe.”

Steve Witkoff meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday in a bid to salvage Gaza truce talks
Image:
Steve Witkoff met Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday. Pic: US embassy in Jerusalem

Aid workers on the ground have warned that a “politically manmade famine” is taking place in the territory.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, told The World With Yalda Hakim that “more and more people will continue to die” unless there is urgent change.

Donald Trump has expressed frustration at the lack of aid reaching Palestinians and has repeatedly blamed Hamas – but US government analysis has found no evidence that the militant group is systemically stealing supplies.

More on Donald Trump

He told reporters yesterday: “It’s terrible what’s occurring there. People are very hungry, you know.

“The United States gave $60m … for food. And, it’s a shame because … I don’t see the results of it. Part of the problem is Hamas is taking the money and they’re taking the food.”

Gaza latest: ‘Children are passing out from hunger’

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Kids are ‘dying silently of hunger’

On Thursday, Mr Witkoff arrived in Israel and held discussions with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – the first meeting between the pair since both Israel and the US withdrew their negotiating teams from Qatar a week ago.

At the time, he claimed that Hamas “shows a lack of desire” to reach a truce.

Under heavy international pressure, Israel has paused fighting in parts of Gaza and airdropped food – although the volume of supplies remains far lower than what aid organisations say is needed.

Palestinians rush to collect humanitarian aid airdropped in central Gaza. Pic: AP
Image:
Palestinians rush to collect humanitarian aid airdropped in central Gaza. Pic: AP

While more aid trucks have entered Gaza, nearly all the lorries are stripped of their cargo by crowds of Palestinians desperate for food, or looted by armed gangs.

The alternative food distribution system run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has also been marred by violence.

Doctor Tom Adamkiewicz, a paediatrician working at Nasser Hospital in Gaza, told Sky News that the majority of the hospital’s patients have signs of malnutrition – and “many children are passing out literally during the day and injuring themselves”.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Gazan boy arrives in UK for treatment

Separately, German foreign minister Johann Wadephul also arrived in Israel on Thursday on a two-day trip that will also take him to the occupied West Bank.

Germany, traditionally a staunch ally of Israel, has been increasingly critical. Mr Wadephul warned that Israel is “increasingly finding itself in a minority position”.

But he stopped short of moving towards recognising a Palestinian state, something his allies France, the UK and Canada have vowed to do in September if certain conditions are met.

Read more world news:
Russian attack on Kyiv kills at least 14 people
‘China is preparing to invade Taiwan’

Follow The World
Follow The World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

Meanwhile, Sweden’s prime minister has called on the EU to “freeze” its trade agreement with Israel – with Ulf Kristersson describing the situation in Gaza as “utterly deplorable”.

After visiting Gaza, Mr Witkoff will travel to Russia. He has held extensive talks in Moscow with Vladimir Putin in the past.

The US president has given his Russian counterpart until 8 August to reach a deal to halt the fighting in Ukraine, or else he will impose economic sanctions.

Continue Reading

World

Gazan boy, 15, given hero’s welcome as he arrives in UK for urgent medical treatment

Published

on

By

Gazan boy, 15, given hero's welcome as he arrives in UK for urgent medical treatment

A 15-year-old boy from Gaza brought to the UK for urgent medical treatment has told Sky News of his joy and relief.

Majd Alshagnobi arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport with his mother and two siblings to a hero’s welcome on Wednesday evening, with well-wishers bearing flowers, gifts, and banners.

It has been a tortuous wait for the teenager, who suffered severe facial injuries in February 2024 when Israeli tank shells exploded near him and a group of friends.

Majd lost part of his face as well as his entire jaw and all his teeth. It has left him and his family traumatised.

His mother, Islam, told me that doctors at the Mamadani hospital in Gaza were shocked that her son survived the incident.

“When Majd first got to the hospital, they thought he was dead because of the severities of the injuries on his face and leg,” she said. “But when he raised his arm, they realised he was still alive.

“All the operating rooms were busy, so they carried out the operation in the kitchen to save him.

“It was very difficult for him to breathe, and they had to feed him through tubes and syringes through his nose. He really suffered.”

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Sky News investigates: Gaza’s deadliest days

Majd stood awestruck at the window of the small central London apartment where his family had been accommodated. He wore a blue surgical mask but gently pulled it down to reveal a smile.

“Thank God I have the opportunity to receive treatment here… that’s the reason I have come. To get treatment,” he said. “Since I arrived, I have felt so much happier.

“We’ve been greeted in such a nice way, with gifts and things to help us.”

But it will take time for the young football fan to come to terms with the trauma he has suffered.

When I ask him what he remembers from his time in Gaza, he replies: “I saw dogs eating bodies and I was terrified, and I thought I was going to die. Stuff like that…”

Majd Alshagnobi's mother Islam
Image:
Majd Alshagnobi’s mother Islam

His mother, who has had to leave two of her children in Gaza with their father, tells me: “Right now my family in Gaza live in tents. We’ve lost our home, we’ve lost our memories, we’ve lost our dreams. Nothing is left in Gaza.

“My two children who are still in Gaza with their father, every day I wake up in fear that they have been killed. Anything could happen to them in Gaza.”

Around 5,000 children have been evacuated from Gaza, with the majority going to Egypt and Gulf countries.

Majd is the third child to come to the UK with the help of the charity Project Pure Hope.

The group of volunteers have been campaigning successive governments for the last 20 months to create a scheme which would allow for the evacuation of 30 to 50 children.

The charity has raised the money to bring the children and their families to the UK, and cover their medical costs, privately.

Read more:
The view from a plane dropping aid to Gaza
Inside Gaza’s Nasser Hospital

Follow The World
Follow The World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

Last week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the government was “accelerating efforts” to evacuate Gazan children who need urgent medical care in the UK.

Omar Din, the co-founder of Project Pure Hope, says it is time for the government to step in and take responsibility.

“We’re hoping following the prime minister’s announcement last Friday, that in the coming days we’ll have some concrete actions,” he said. “The more we wait, the more children die who we could be saving.

“We’ve done this privately because there was no other option available but myself, and members of my founding team, have done lots of this work for Ukrainian refugees previously. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be doing that for Gazans.”

Continue Reading

World

‘China is preparing to invade Taiwan’ – but there are questions over whether the island is ready

Published

on

By

'China is preparing to invade Taiwan' - but there are questions over whether the island is ready

At a critical port on the Taiwanese island of Penghu, there is a sudden bang of explosions.

For emergency crews, it is a race to respond, attend to the injured and contain what damage they can. It is noisy and chaotic.

But this time, it is just a rehearsal.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Is Taiwan ready for Chinese invasion?

In fact, what we have been invited to watch is part of a programme of nationwide drills to test Taiwan’s civil resilience.

To ask, in essence, if its people are ready for war.

And there are clearly questions here about whether they are.

A man feigns injury during a drill, simulating an explosion at a port on the Taiwanese island of Penghu

Penghu is an archipelago that sits about 31 miles (50km) west of Taiwan’s main island. It could be an early, easy target for China – and that means preparation here is vital.

But observers who have travelled from Taipei to assess proceedings are not entirely impressed.

“Do you think with just the staff here now it will be enough?” asks one senior government official at a community hall where about a dozen staff are practising handing out food and supplies.

“Of course not! There will be more than 7,000 people queuing up. They’ll wait from morning until the afternoon and get nothing. It’s completely impossible.”

Image for HA Smith piece on Taiwan security

‘China is preparing to invade’

The scenarios might be imagined, but the threat behind them is very real, and it’s being met with a new sense of urgency.

And now, in an interview with Sky News, Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister Wu Chihchung lays out the reality in perhaps some of the starkest terms used by this administration to date.

“The population need to not be naive like in the past,” he says.

“China is preparing to invade Taiwan.”

Helen-Ann Smith sits down with Taiwan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Chihchung in Taipei
Image:
Taiwan was naive about its security, says deputy foreign minister Wu Chihchung

It comes at a time when increasingly sophisticated military activity and grey zone incursions from China have combined with a more robust approach from Taiwan’s new president Lai Ching-te, resulting in the most febrile atmosphere in the Taiwan Strait for decades.

Add into the mix Donald Trump’s presidency casting doubt over whether Taiwan can rely on US support in the event of a crisis, and questions about Taiwan’s readiness feel more pressing now than ever before.

“Taiwan alone, facing China – we will never be ready,” concedes Wu. “It’s not possible, China is so big, so huge.”

His words reflect harsh realities in Taiwan.

Self-governing and democratic, it is viewed by China as a breakaway province.

Under President Xi Jinping, the long-held aim of reunification has been turbocharged – he has reportedly asked his troops to be ready for a potential invasion as early as 2027.

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s new president is seen as a deeply provocative figure on the mainland, with Beijing depicting him in propaganda as a parasite “courting ultimate destruction”.

In Lai Ching-te’s first year in office, he has demonstrated a willingness to go further in both words and policies than any who have preceded him.

He has not only described China as “a foreign hostile force” but has introduced a raft of new security measures, including the reinstating of a military court-style system, the deportation of pro-China influencers and a spike in the number of people arrested for espionage – four times as many last year as in 2021.

And all this has not gone unnoticed by China.

China’s grey zone tactics

The 14 months since Lai’s inauguration have been marked by an increase in Chinese action: numerous large-scale military drills, live-fire exercises and full encirclement of the island by jets and ships.

Beijing also appears to have been testing new capabilities, with onlookers in China taking videos of what appeared to be a test of a huge amphibious bridging system, a possible path on to Taiwan.

But perhaps the most noteworthy change has been the marked increase in so-called grey zone incursions, with China encroaching slowly in ways that are hard for Taiwan to respond to.

On Penghu, these tactics are a daily reality and are impacting lives and livelihoods.

“In the past, our fishing boats could go directly to mainland China. They’d even go ashore, maybe grab a meal,” explains Yen Te-Fu, who heads up the Penghu Fishermen’s Association.

A fishing boat off the Taiwanese island of Penghu
Image:
Penghu’s fishing industry has been impacted by Chinese incursions

“But fishermen are now too afraid to sail to China. When they fish in our own waters, they constantly see Chinese Coast Guard ships. They’re genuinely scared.”

He says it’s worse now than ever “because Lai Ching-te’s stance is even clearer”.

But the use of coastguard vessels to enforce new Chinese-set norms is just one tactic, according to observers.

Taiwan Coast Guard vessel Ji An, right, chases after Chinese Coast Guard vessel 1302 off the coast of Hualien, on Thu, Dec 12, 2024
Image:
Taiwan’s Coast Guard faces off against Chinese counterparts near the coast of Hualien, east Taiwan, last December

Research published by the Taiwanese thinktank Research Project on China’s Defence Affairs (RCDA) has recorded new incidents of so-called “three-no” ships crossing the median line.

These are ships with no name, no registered home port and no registration certificate.

Thirty ships crossed on the eve of the one-year anniversary of President Lai’s inauguration as an “evidently disguised maritime militia ship”, the RCDA says.

Image for HA Smith piece on Taiwan security

While not against maritime law, it is nonetheless a serious accusation.

“This is nothing but a sheer slander, like a thief shouting ‘catch the thief’,” said Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, a spokesperson for China’s ministry of national defence, when we put it to him.

“The relevant actions conducted by the PLA in the Taiwan Strait are necessary measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Transactional Trump ‘constantly changing’

Conversations about Taiwan’s security have changed since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

Like most countries, the US does not share formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but it is treaty-bound to supply it with defensive arms, and previous presidents have hinted they would do more if needed.

But Trump has accused Taiwan of “stealing” the US semiconductor industry, slapped it with a 32% tariff rate and refused to say if he would come to Taiwan’s defence (the tariff has been paused while negotiations continue).

At a baseball game in the northern city of Taoyuan, people didn’t hold back their views.

Sky News went to a baseball game in the Taiwanese city of Taoyuan

“I think he’s quite crazy,” one woman tells us.

“He’s constantly changing, there’s no credibility at all,” says a man. “It’s always America First, not caring about any other country.”

A woman at a baseball game in the Taiwanese city of Taoyuan. She said of Donald Trump “I think he’s quite crazy.”
Image:
‘I think he’s quite crazy,’ says a baseball fan on Trump

Government figures, of course, remain more diplomatic. Lai described the recent tariff negotiation as merely “frictions between friends”, but there is a sense that they know they cannot afford to become alienated from Trump.

In fact, TSMC, Taiwan’s (and the world’s) leading manufacturer of semiconductor chips, recently announced an additional $100bn investment to build factories in the US.

Semiconductors are the vital chips needed to power the modern world. Taiwan makes more than 90% of the world’s most advanced ones, and the industry is seen as one of the key reasons the West could come to its support.

Taiwan's Semiconductor Manufacturing Company invests $100 billion in the US
Image:
Trump announced the $100bn deal with TSMC president C.C Wei at the White House

The US investment was thus criticised by some as a divergence of Taiwan’s greatest defensive asset, a claim the government here bats away.

“America has also given us a lot,” insists deputy foreign minister Wu. “The American army is working hard to maintain peace in the region.

“Donald Trump certainly knows that without Taiwanese chips, he cannot make America great again.”

Taiwan’s ‘wake-up call’ on defence

With more concern over US support for Taiwan, come questions on whether the island could defend itself.

In recent years, there has been a concerted push from the Taiwanese government to better equip itself with the type of asymmetric weaponry that would be needed to resist China.

Inspired by the experiences of Ukraine, additional drone manufacturers were given contracts in 2022 to help rapidly scale up production of military-grade drones.

But data from the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology shows that there is still a long way to go.

Thunder Tiger supplies drones to the Taiwanese military
Image:
Taiwan is attempting to scale up production of military-grade drones

Drone production capacity in the year to April 2025 was only around 5% of the 180,000 units Taiwan wants to be producing annually by 2028.

Thunder Tiger was one of the firms given a contract and its general manager Gene Su says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a “wake-up call” for Taiwanese military procurement.

But more needs to be done, he adds.

“I believe we are speeding up, but I believe that it’s not yet there,” he says.

In his dealings with the government, he feels that Trump has changed the equation, with an uptick of defence purchasing.

Thunder Tiger board director and general manager, Gene Su
Image:
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a ‘wake-up call’ for Taiwan, says Gene Su

But even with these renewed efforts, without help from allies, it is still unlikely Taiwan could hold out.

China has always been resolute and consistent.

It says the Taiwan question is purely an internal affair of China and that the Lai administration is a separatist force, which is the root cause of disruption to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

It also says there is “no such thing” as a deputy foreign minister in Taiwan.

The status quo has kept Taiwan safe for nearly 80 years and the government here insists that maintaining it is their priority, but that has rarely felt so vulnerable.

Continue Reading

Trending