‘Frenzied, chaotic mess’: Fears grow over spread of disease after deadly Libya floods
The aid effort in the flood-ravaged city of Derna in east Libya has ramped up considerably in the past 48 hours. But while there are increased numbers of people on the ground helping, much of it still seems a frenzied, chaotic mess.
The humanitarian relief work might have stepped up a gear more than a week on from the massive disaster but now the aid teams are scrambling to prevent another disaster – that of the spread of disease.
We saw groups handing out masks and plastic gloves to people after warnings that the putrefying corpses still being recovered could spread disease. The water is thought to be heavily contaminated and large sections of the city centre have been left with no water or electricity.
The accelerated activity comes after days of mounting criticism about the relief operation being slow and uncoordinated. Now the gutted city is much busier with scores of teams on site and the main route into and out of the devastated centre is clogged with vehicles. Most we saw were Libyans – from all parts of the fractured country.
We spotted a group of young men from Benghazi, dressed in hazmat suits and wearing respirators.
“There’s no actual way to describe (what’s happened) and to talk about it,” one told us: “You are lost for words… it’s an absolute catastrophe.”
Many of the teams are still involved in trying to locate and retrieve the bodies of those who didn’t survive the violent flooding.
About 10,000 people are still unaccounted for.
Scene of devastation in Derna
Libyan National Army commandos were on a charm offensive with us, inviting us to film them pitching in with the aid fort.
Captain Hamza Adia told us how the troops – like their civilian brothers and sisters – had been deeply affected by the tragedy.
“We are here and helping retrieve the dead bodies.
“All of us are brothers – my guys are here and we’re ready to give everything – even if that costs us our lives.”
Many civilians have been heavily critical about what they say is the lack of any substantial effort on the part of the military to help out with the relief work.
The military strongman effectively in charge of the east, Khalifa Heftar and his sons, have been accused of trying to bolster their power here rather than distribute humanitarian aid.
Read more:
Before and after pictures show devastation of Libya floods
Huge aid package including body bags arrives in Libya
Libya’s recent history dating back to the 2011 NATO-backed military campaign to topple the long-time dictator Colonel Gaddafi, has meant the country has been fraught with problems ever since.
The ousting of Colonel Gaddafi led to a power vacuum which was filled by competing militia and resulted in rival authorities controlling the east and west as well as the outbreak of a bitter and violent civil war.
The instability allowed the Islamic State to take over territory including Derna in 2014. General Khalifa Heftar who was a soldier in Gaddafi’s military imposed a siege on the city to try to “starve” the IS militants into submission.
General Saddam Khalifa
He claimed the credit for eventually pushing them out although Derna residents remember events differently, insisting it was an anti-Heftar group of tribes who reclaimed their city for them. Heftar has maintained a focused eye on Derna ever since.
We spoke to his youngest son, General Saddam Khalifa, who is considered his father’s most likely successor and who we’ve spotted touring the devastated city over the past few days.
Almost every Libyan you speak to at the moment will tell you of the need for much more aid from outside the country to help them cope with this huge disaster. But if General Khalifa agrees with this sentiment, he’s reluctant to talk too much about it when Sky News spoke to him.
“Has the international response been adequate?” I ask him – but he’s clearly a very reluctant interviewee. His face is a picture of irritation with me.
“It’s fine for now,” he replies. “Yes, we need help but the rescue teams are doing their job.”
He is the man in charge of the Disaster Response Committee and responsible for the coordination of the relief effort as well as the international rescue crews.
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He is also likely to be in charge of any inquiry into how the city’s two dams both collapsed when Storm Daniel hit Libya.
The disintegration of the dams unleashed an avalanche of water which smashed through Derna like a powerful tsunami wrecking about an estimated quarter of the centre and killing thousands. The dams’ collapse is being blamed on poor maintenance over more than a decade.
Read more:
Libya flood damage revealed
Huge aid package arrives in Libya
Diggers searching through the rubble
But the younger Khalifa refused to countenance any suggestion there’d been neglect or wrongdoing – certainly at the top of the country’s eastern power base which, given the family’s stranglehold on all affairs here, would include himself, his father and his brothers.
I mention this criticism over the disaster and ask if the disaster could have been prevented. Many Derna residents say the lack of investment in the infrastructure – including not upgrading the two dams.
There had been multiple warnings that the dams urgently needed this. “What’s your view on that,” I ask.
He gives that question short shrift… “All is ok,’ he tells me.
“I have no criticism.” And with that, he indicates with a hand gesture that this brief interaction is over.
Alex Crawford was reporting from Derna in east Libya with cameraman Jake Britton and producer Chris Cunningham.
World
Russia wants ‘quick peace’ in Ukraine and London is ‘head of those resisting it’, ambassador to UK tells Sky News
Russia wants “quick peace” in Ukraine and London is at the “head of those resisting” it, the Russian ambassador to the UK has told Sky News.
In an interview on The World With Yalda Hakim, Andrei Kelin accused the UK, France and other European nations of not wanting to end the war in Ukraine.
“We are prepared to negotiate and to talk,” he said. “We have our position. If we can strike a negotiated settlement… we need a very serious approach to that and a very serious agreement about all of that – and about security in Europe.”
Russian ambassador Andrei Kelin speaks to Yalda Hakim
US President Donald Trump held a surprise phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last month, shocking America’s European allies. He went on to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” and relations between the pair were left in tatters after a meeting in the Oval Office descended into a shouting match.
Days later, the US leader suspended military aid to Ukraine, though there were signs the relationship between the two leaders appeared to be on the mend following the contentious White House meeting last week, with Mr Trump saying he “appreciated” a letter from Mr Zelenskyy saying Kyiv was ready to sign a minerals agreement with Washington “at any time”.
In his interview with Sky News’ Yalda Hakim, Mr Kelin said he was “not surprised” the US has changed its position on Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022, claiming Mr Trump “knows the history of the conflict”.
“He knows history and is very different from European leaders,” he added.
No doubt Russia is welcoming shift in world order
I’ve interviewed the Russian ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, on a number of occasions, at times the conversation has been tense and heated.
But today, I found a diplomat full of confidence and cautiously optimistic.
The optics of course have suddenly changed in Russia’s favour since Donald Trump was elected.
I asked him if Russia couldn’t believe its luck. “I would not exaggerate this too much,” he quipped.
Mr Kelin also “categorically” ruled out European troops on the ground and said the flurry of diplomatic activity and summits over the course of the past few weeks is not because Europeans want to talk to Moscow but because they want to present something to Mr Trump.
He appeared to relish the split the world is witnessing in transatlantic relations.
Of course the ambassador remained cagey about the conversations that have taken place between President Trump and Vladimir Putin.
There is no doubt however that Russia is welcoming what Mr Kelin says is a shift in the world order.
Peace deal ‘should recognise Russian advances’
The Russian ambassador said Moscow had told Washington it believed its territorial advances in Ukraine “should be recognised” as part of any peace deal.
“What we will need is a new Ukraine as a neutral, non-nuclear state,” he said. “The territorial situation should be recognised. These territories have been included in our constitution and we will continue to push that all forces of the Ukrainian government will leave these territories.”
Asked if he thought the Americans would agree to give occupied Ukrainian land to Russia, he said: “I don’t think we have discussed it seriously. [From] what I have read, the Americans actually understand the reality.”
Read more:
What you need to know from a monumental week in Ukraine
US ‘destroying’ world order by trying to meet Russia ‘halfway’
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In full: Russian ambassador’s interview with Sky’s Yalda Hakim
Moscow rules out NATO peacekeepers in Ukraine
He said Russia “categorically ruled out” the prospect of NATO peacekeepers on the ground in Ukraine – a proposal made by UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron – saying “they have no rules of engagement” and so would just be “sitting in cities”.
“It’s senseless” and “not for reality,” Mr Kelin added.
He branded the temporary ceasefire raised by Mr Zelenskyy “a crazy idea”, and said: “We will never accept it and they perfectly are aware of that.
“We will only accept the final version, when we are going to sign it. Until then things are very shaky.”
He added: “We’re trying to find a resolution on the battlefield, until the US administration suggest something constructive.”
World
US ‘destroying’ international rules-based order by trying to meet Russia ‘halfway’, Ukraine’s UK ambassador warns
The United States is “finally destroying” the international rules-based order by trying to meet Russia “halfway”, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK has warned.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi said Washington’s recent actions in relation to Moscow could lead to the collapse of NATO – with Europe becoming Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s next target.
“The failure to qualify actions of Russia as an aggression is a huge challenge for the entire world and Europe, in particular,” he told a conference at the Chatham House think tank.
Ukraine latest: ‘Watershed moment’ as Kremlin blasts Macron
“We see that it is not just the axis of evil and Russia trying to revise the world order, but the US is finally destroying this order.”
Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Pic: Reuters
Mr Zaluzhnyi, who took over as Kyiv’s ambassador to London in 2024 following three years as commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, also warned that the White House had “questioned the unity of the whole Western world” – suggesting NATO could cease to exist as a result.
It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy scrambles to repair relations with US President Donald Trump following a dramatic row between the two men in the Oval Office last week.
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Mr Trump signalled on Tuesday that tensions could be easing, telling Congress he had received a letter from Mr Zelenskyy saying he was ready to sign a peace deal “at any time”.
Zelenskyy and Trump during their extraordinary Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Read more:
New Zealand fires UK envoy for Trump comments
US stops sharing all intelligence with Ukraine
But on the same day, the US president ordered a sudden freeze on shipments of US military aid to Ukraine, and Washington has since paused intelligence sharing with Kyiv and halted cyber operations against Russia.
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Mr Zaluzhnyi said the pause in cyber operations and an earlier decision by the US to oppose a UN resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine were “a huge challenge for the entire world”.
He added that talks between the US and Russia – “headed by a war criminal” – showed the White House “makes steps towards the Kremlin, trying to meet them halfway”, warning Moscow’s next target “could be Europe”.
World
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh being forced to fight for same military accused of genocide against their people
Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh is a sprawling mass of humanity.Â
It’s a sea of makeshift bamboo shelters, home to more than one million Rohingya refugees – a mainly Muslim minority from Rakhine state in Myanmar.
Some 700,000 fled their homeland back in 2017 – after the Myanmar military massacred thousands.
The army was accused of genocide by the United Nations.
The Rohingya refugees didn’t escape danger though.
Right now, violence is at its worst levels in the camps since 2017 and Rohingya people face a particularly cruel new threat – they’re being forced back to fight for the same Myanmar military accused of trying to wipe out their people.
A child at the refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar
Militant groups are recruiting Rohingya men in the camps, some at gunpoint, and taking them back to Myanmar to fight for a force that’s losing ground.
Jaker is just 19.
We’ve changed his name to protect his identity.
He says he was abducted at gunpoint last year by a group of nine men in Cox’s.
They tied his hands with rope he says and took him to the border where he was taken by boat with three other men to fight for the Myanmar military.
“It was heartbreaking,” he told me. “They targeted poor children. The children of wealthy families only avoided it by paying money.”
And he says the impact has been deadly.
“Many of our Rohingya boys, who were taken by force from the camps, were killed in battle.”
Jaker speaks to Sky’s Cordelia Lynch
An aerial view of the refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar
The situation in Cox’s is desperate.
People are disillusioned by poverty, violence and the plight of their own people and the civil war they ran from is getting worse.
In Rakhine, just across the border, there’s been a big shift in dynamics.
The Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic armed group has all but taken control of the state from the ruling military junta.
Both the military and the AA are accused of committing atrocities against Rohingya Muslims.
And whilst some Rohingya claim they’re being forced into the fray – dragged back to Myanmar from Bangladesh, others are willing to go.
Read more from Sky News:
Bangladesh leader reacts to ‘House of Mirrors’ prison
Inside Bangladesh’s ‘death squad’ jails
Sri Lanka rescues more than 100 people believed to be Rohingya refugees
Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar – where refugees arrive from Myanmar after crossing the Naf River
Some are so aggrieved with the AA, they’re willing to support their former persecutors.
Abu Zar is one of those willing to take up arms.
But not for the military or AA, he says.
Everyone praying in the mosque with him is prepared to go back to protect their own cause he says – not anyone else’s.
“We want to fight for our rights because we have been demanding justice for a long time. But the situation has become unbearable,” he tells me.
Abu Zar has said he is willing to take up arms for his own cause
It’s estimated between 3,000 and 5,000 Rohingya have joined armed groups from this camp.
But the fight they are joining has become increasingly bloody.
In a cramped shelter, we meet Safura.
Safura came under fire as she fled Myanmar
Safura’s son Aman had his foot blown off
Five days ago she managed to get out of Myanmar but she had to be carried part of the way.
Her legs are riddled with bullet wounds and the pain is severe.
Her son, Aman, who lies on the floor next to her, has had his foot blown off.
They were injured she said, during an attack on her family home in the middle of the night.
“They entered our house and shot all my family members. My husband and mother-in-law were killed on the spot.”
The military denies forcing Rohingya to the battlefield. But the camps tell a different story- one of surging violence and vulnerability.
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