La Libye est sous le choc mercredi après des inondations dévastatrices provoquées par la tempête Daniel qui ont fait plus de 3800 morts et au moins 30’000 déplacés dans la ville côtière de Derna (est). Mais les incertitudes sont grandes sur le nombre exact de victimes et le bilan pourrait s’alourdir.

Storm Daniel hit the north-eastern part of Libya causing massive flooding & affecting thousands.@LibyaRC teams are on the ground providing support.

The IFRC expresses its deepest condolences to the families of three @LibyaRC volunteers who lost their lives while on duty. pic.twitter.com/uLW1VQx4wE

— IFRC (@ifrc) September 13, 2023

Au moins 30’000 personnes qui vivaient dans cette ville de 100’000 habitants ont été déplacées, a indiqué mercredi l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM), et les incertitudes demeurent sur le nombre exact de victimes de la catastrophe.

Storm Daniel hit the north-eastern part of Libya affecting thousands of people.

Teams & volunteers from @LibyaRC were the first on the ground, evacuating people & providing first aid & search & rescue efforts.

The IFRC teams will support the @LibyaRC as needed. pic.twitter.com/RL9zql832l

— IFRC (@ifrc) September 12, 2023

L’OIM a fait par ailleurs état de 3000 déplacés à al-Bayda et plus de 2000 à Benghazi, d’autres villes situées plus à l’Ouest.

Derna n’est plus accessible que par deux entrées au Sud (sur sept habituellement), des pannes d’électricité généralisées et des perturbations du réseau de télécommunication limitent les communications, selon l’OIM.

Calling the international community to refocus on #Libya while planning their global support. Hopefully it will not be a forgotten crisis and resources will be provided to alleviate human suffering.@ifrc is coordinating support efforts to enable @LibyaRC to operate in the https://t.co/BGB2vA8voA

— Tamer Ramadan (@drTamer_Ramadan) September 13, 2023

Des milliers de morts

Alors que le pays est enfoncé dans le chaos depuis la mort du dictateur Mouammar Khadafi en 2011, divisé entre l’Est et l’Ouest, les autorités des camps rivaux évoquent « des milliers » de morts.

Selon le porte-parole du ministère de l’Intérieur du gouvernement en place dans l’est du pays, le lieutenant Tarek al-Kharraz, 3840 morts ont été recensés dans la ville à ce stade, dont 3190 ont déjà été enterrés. Au moins 400 étrangers, essentiellement des Soudanais et des Egyptiens, figurent parmi les victimes.

Honored to witness amazing work done by @LibyaRC volunteers in "Disaster Preparedness Camp" in #Shahat city,supported by @ifrc #Libya_Delegation
Volunteers willing to do their best to assist vulnerable people, driven only by #Humanity in their hearts@IFRC_MENA #Thx_volunteers👏 https://t.co/d8ziQiAqyn

— Tamer Ramadan (@drTamer_Ramadan) August 5, 2023

Oussama Ali, porte-parole du « Service de secours et d’urgence » libyen, relevant du gouvernement internationalement reconnu de Tripoli, avait affirmé mardi que plus de 5000 personnes étaient portées disparues.

Un responsable de la Fédération internationale des sociétés de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge (FICR) a fait état lui d’un nombre « énorme » de morts qui pourraient se compter en milliers, avec 10’000 disparus.

Dimanche après-midi, la tempête Daniel a atteint la côte orientale de la Libye, touchant la métropole de Benghazi avant de se diriger vers l’Est.

Dans la nuit de dimanche à lundi, les deux barrages sur Wadi Derna, qui retiennent les eaux de l’oued qui traverse la ville, ont lâché.

https://t.co/gYhIT6S7w7#Roads flooded in #Libya 🇱🇾 after deadly #Storm #Medicane #Daniel #MedicaneDaniel #Reuters

— Alessio Brancaccio 🐺 (@bralex84) September 13, 2023

Des témoins ont indiqué à des médias libyens avoir entendu une « énorme explosion » avant que des torrents puissants n’atteignent la ville, débordant sur les rives, emportant les ponts et des quartiers entiers avec leurs habitants vers la Méditerranée.

⚠️🌊🇱🇾 – A terrible tragedy, but one that is being covered very little in the media: 6,900 people died in #Libya as a result of the floods that recently devastated the country.

💥 – Notice the level of destruction! pic.twitter.com/syzSrNDmtT

— 🔥🗞The Informant (@theinformantofc) September 13, 2023

Les infrastructures vétustes, les constructions en violation des règles urbanistiques au cours de la dernière décennie et le manque de préparation face à ce type de catastrophe ont transformé cette ville en un cimetière à ciel ouvert, selon des experts.

Arrivée d’aide

Des corps ont commencé dès mardi à être rejetés par la mer qui a viré de couleur en devenant marron comme la boue.

Dans le pays comme à l’étranger, la mobilisation est forte pour aider les victimes, même si les secours arrivent encore au compte-goutte.

Before and after the floods. Over the weekend, Storm Daniel caused 2 dams in the city of #Derna, Eastern #Libya to burst. This is where the worst of the damage lies. #LibyaFloods https://t.co/fmAH8u8I0T

— Make Me Aware (@Make_Me_Aware) September 13, 2023

La Commission européenne a annoncé mercredi l’envoi d’aide de l’Allemagne, la Roumanie et la Finlande vers Derna dans le cadre du mécanisme de protection civile de l’UE.

L’UE indique aussi avoir débloqué une première enveloppe de 500’000 euros pour répondre aux besoins les plus urgents des Libyens.

La Jordanie a envoyé un avion rempli d’aide humanitaire, a indiqué de son côté l’Organisation caritative hachémite jordanienne. L’avion contient des tentes, couvertures, matelas et des colis de nourriture, selon elle.

مستشفى العيون بطرابلس يرسل شحنة من المواد الطبية إلى المناطق المتضررة في شرق البلاد.#ليبيا_بانوراما #ليبيا #Libya pic.twitter.com/3BE1m7RTn9

— ليبيا بانوراما (@lpc_ly) September 13, 2023

Le ministère italien de la Défense a aussi annoncé mercredi le départ d’un navire et de deux avions de transport militaires pour acheminer des experts et du matériel logistique de première nécessité.

Les jours précédents, des équipes de secouristes envoyées par la Turquie et les Emirats arabes unis sont arrivées dans l’est de la Libye, selon les autorités.

L’Algérie et l’Egypte avaient indiqué mardi avoir aussi envoyé de l’aide.

Turkiye continues to support Libyan government’s relief efforts. Turkish Ministry of Health installed a field hospital in Libya’s Derna city today.#Libya #LibyaFlood #Derna #storm #umke #sağlıkbakanlığı pic.twitter.com/P0GqRbsn41

— JournoTurk (@journoturk) September 13, 2023

Un phénomène météorologique particulier

Des mers plus chaudes, un chaos politique et des infrastructures défaillantes sont à l’origine des effets dévastateurs des inondations qui ont tué au moins 2300 personnes en Libye, selon plusieurs experts.

Dans la nuit de dimanche à lundi, les deux barrages de retenue des eaux du Wadi Derna, l’oued qui traverse la ville de Derna, sur la côte est de la Méditerranée, ont lâché.

Des torrents puissants ont détruit les ponts et emporté des quartiers entiers avec leurs habitants de part et d’autre de l’oued, avant de se déverser dans la mer.

La tempête Daniel s’est formée autour du 4 septembre, semant la mort et la destruction en Bulgarie, en Grèce et en Turquie la semaine dernière avant d’arriver en Libye.

Un genre de cyclone

Ces tempêtes méditerranéennes qui présentent les caractéristiques des cyclones et ouragans tropicaux, appelés « medicanes » (contraction de Mediterranean hurricanes, ouragans méditerranéens), ne se produisent qu’une à trois fois par an.

Pour se former, elles ont besoin de flux de chaleur et d’humidité, qui sont « renforcés par les températures chaudes de la surface de la mer », souligne Suzanne Gray, professeur au département de météorologie de l’Université de Reading en Grande-Bretagne.

Or, depuis plusieurs semaines, les eaux de surface de la Méditerranée orientale et de l’Atlantique sont deux à trois degrés Celsius plus chaudes que d’habitude. Elles sont donc « susceptibles d’avoir provoqué des précipitations plus intenses », ont déclaré plusieurs scientifiques lors d’une réunion du UK National Climate Impacts.

World Opinions + Agences

L’article Les inondations en Libye ont fait plus de 3800 morts et 30’000 déplacés.. Vidéos est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Libya’s parliament has said that Friday’s planned presidential election will not go ahead, leaving the internationally backed peace process in chaos and the fate of the interim government in doubt.

The electoral committee’s statement on Wednesday was the first official announcement of a delay, which had been widely expected amid ongoing disputes over the rules of the polls. It did not set a new date for the polls, which had been scheduled for 24 December.

With major mobilisations in Tripoli and other western areas by armed groups, the collapse of the electoral process risks aggravating local disputes and triggering a new round of violence.

Disputes over the path forward could also undo the wider UN-backed peace process between Libya’s main eastern and western camps that have maintained a ceasefire since last year.

Factions, candidates and foreign powers have been talking behind the scenes about whether an election can still take place with a short delay or whether a longer postponement is necessary to reach agreement on the legal basis of the vote.

UN special adviser Stephanie Williams said on social media she had been meeting members of the political forum that set the electoral process in train last year and reiterated the need for “free, fair and credible elections”.

The electoral committee said that the government’s mandate would expire on Friday.

The elections had long been touted as a way to restore order and unity to a nation ravaged by terrorism, divided by war and degraded by economic ruin, but the build-up has been dogged by disagreements over the vote’s legality and eligibility of some of the frontrunners.

In September the speaker of parliament Aguila Saleh, himself a presidential candidate, issued a law that his critics said was not properly passed through the chamber, deviated from the roadmap and was crafted to benefit himself and his allies.

That law, which split the presidential election from a later parliamentary one, formed the basis of the electoral process, although powerful factions and leading candidates rejected it.

With little agreement on the rules, or on who would enforce them or adjudicate disputes, the entry of highly divisive candidates into the presidential race triggered the collapse of the process.

The three most prominent candidates, eastern commander Khalifa Haftar, the son of the former dictator Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, were also the three most divisive.

Haftar was unacceptable to many in western Libya after his 2019-20 assault on Tripoli that smashed parts of the capital. Gaddafi was convicted of war crimes by a Tripoli court and is detested by many of those who fought in the 2011 revolt.

Dbeibah had promised when he was installed as premier that he would not run in an election and his continued work as prime minister in the run-up to the vote led many of his rivals to say he had an unfair advantage.

World Opinions News / Reuters

L’article Libyan election called off as fears of fresh violence grow est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

The European Union has imposed sanctions on Russian private military contractor Wagner Group, as well as on eight individuals and three other energy companies in Syria accused of helping finance the mercenaries in Ukraine, Libya and Syria.

The EU accused the Wagner Group, whose members are mostly former service personnel, of human rights abuses and said they carried out clandestine operations on the Kremlin’s behalf.

“The Wagner Group is responsible for serious human rights abuses in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, Sudan and Mozambique,” the EU said in its official journal, listing torture and extrajudicial executions.

Russia has denied any wrongdoing. President Vladimir Putin has said private military contractors have the right to work and pursue their interests anywhere in the world as long as they do not break Russian law. Putin has said the Wagner Group neither represented the Russian state nor was paid by the Russian state.

EU accuses the group of human rights abuses and carrying out clandestine operations on the Kremlin’s behalf.

The travel bans and asset freezes – designed to limit any governments from working with the Wagner Group – are unlikely to have a big impact in Moscow, but they marked a further hardening of EU foreign policy towards Russia, diplomats said.

Among those targeted, the EU blacklisted Dimitriy Utkin, a former Russian military intelligence (GRU) officer, saying he was the founder of the Wagner Group and responsible for “coordinating and planning operations for the deployment of Wagner Group mercenaries in Ukraine”.

Two others, Denis Kharitonov and Sergey Shcherbakov, were a part of a group of alleged Wagner mercenaries who were briefly detained in Belarus last year and sent back to Russia, according to Belarus state news agency Belta.

The EU also said that Kharitonov had fought for Russia in eastern Ukraine, “personally shot down a Ukrainian helicopter” in the region and “received the Russian Federation’s Order of Merit for the Fatherland”.

Three Russian-based entities linked to the Wagner Group that the EU said were involved in oil and gas production in Syria were also hit with sanctions.

The sanctions follow an EU travel ban and asset freeze in October 2020 on one-time Russian caterer Yevgeny Prigozhin, dubbed “Putin’s cook” for his close links to the Kremlin, who the bloc said had close ties to the Wagner Group.

“The Wagner Group is financed by Yevgeny Prigozhin,” the EU said on Monday in its official journal.

Prigozhin denied any such links in a statement on Friday.

The Wagner Group has been accused by Western governments and United Nations experts of human rights abuses in the Central African Republic and involvement in the conflict in Libya. France and Germany have both objected to the presence of its fighters in Mali.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said the company has a “legitimate” right to be in Mali because it was invited by the transitional government, and he insisted the Russian government is not involved.

World Opinions News –  NEWS AGENCIES

L’article EU slaps sanctions on Russian mercenary group Wagner est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Libya is racing against the clock to hold elections in late December. A July 1 deadline for resolving the constitutional (or legal) basis to hold the elections came and passed. A key meeting of the 74-member Libya Political Dialogue Committee meeting whose January roadmap set the election timeline ended indecisively on July 2. The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), which created the forum, failed to mediate and reach consensus when it was most needed. As of now, there is no agreement on what type of elections will be held (presidential, parliamentary, or both), what type of governmental system Libyans will elect (the content of a constitution), and how the elections will be carried out, among other technical issues. Five months is not a lot of time to resolve these issues. And instead of serving as a role model, Tunisia has now inflamed Libya’s deep polarization.

To Libyans skeptical of a strong presidential system, Tunisian president Qais Saied’s July 25 power grab vindicated their suspicions of what could happened with an elected president even with a strong parliament. Khaled Mishri, the head of the advisory High State Council and the closest thing Libya has to an Islamist official immediately proclaimed, “we reject coups against elected bodies and the disruption of democratic paths.” On the flip side General Khalifa Haftar, Libya’s would-be authoritarian who attacked Tripoli in April 2019 welcomed the “intifada against the Muslim Brotherhood,” and praised “eliminat[ing] the most important obstacle in the way of [Tunisia’s] development.” In other words, Saied’s firing of the government, suspending the Ennahda-led parliament, threatening legislators with prosecution, and prohibiting public assemblies would all be steps that someone like Haftar could take as president against a Mishri-influenced parliamentary bloc.

Although they are neighbors, Tunisia and Libya are two very different countries, and there’s a reason one became the Arab world’s lone exemplar of democracy and the other descended into civil war – or three of them. Tunisia had several advantages off the bat in 2011, mainly functional institutions that prevented the collapse of the state that Libya has not experienced after the devastation of Qaddafi’s 42-year rule. While certainly not perfect, the eventual constitutional compromise made by former president Caid Essebsi and Ennahda leader Rachid Ghannouchi enabled Tunisia’s democratic experiment to proceed through elections and two peaceful transitions of power – an essential test of a nascent democracy. Saied’s surprising 2019 election as a populist independent law professor was the latest example. There’s no way of walking back history, but if Tunisia’s economic malaise and mismanagement and poor response to Covid had been less egregious, Saied may not have had the confidence to suspend parliament under the guise of a popular mandate.

Regardless of the different interpretations of Saied’s actions and the debate of how to preserve Tunisia’s democracy going forward, there is one clear implication for Libya: preparing for elections takes time, especially without a clear constitutional mandate and agreements about the separation of powers and candidate requirements. If elections proceed without resolving these contested issues, the resulting challenges to their legitimacy could be more dangerous than delaying elections themselves.

There is still time to meet the requirements to hold free and safe polling in December, but that time is running out. UNSMIL should immediately reconvene the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum to hash out the remaining issues. That is the appropriate venue to finalize this debate based on UN Security Council Resolutions, which endorsed the group’s initial decision on the elections. If UNSMIL is unsuccessful mediating within this group, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres should step in with other UN resources, including constitutional experts and mediators to close out the final disagreements. The attempt by the HoR to independently determine the constitution and the electoral system is a dangerous distraction that will unlikely produce the necessary consensus.

If it proves impossible to agree on a constitution and electoral system by September, a partial electoral strategy should serve as a back-up. Some Libyans are already advocating the election of a new parliament in December while postponing the presidential ballot until a clearer solution to the constitution exists. A new parliament would then select a prime minister whose government would replace the current LPDF-selected Government of National Unity until the constitution and final elections are agreed. This approach is different from having an elected parliament appoint a president, which was proposed during the lasted LPDF session as means of diminishing a president’s independence and popular mandate. There are certainly downsides to such an approach since it extends the transitional period that continues to plague Libya’s governance. But if the controversial events next door can inform Libya’s democratic aspirations, a more methodical approach at this stage may be safer than a rushed one. Libyans were busy fighting a civil war for most of the last two years, not debating constitutional law. By the end of the year, if a freely elected parliament can assume office, replace the barely-functional HOR and renew legitimacy at least on the legislative front, that would represent major progress. Having a few prominent figures jostle over a potential powerful presidency with unclear power restraints would make Saied’s power-grab look like a minor political scuffle given Libya’s still unsteady ceasefire and the continued presence of internal armed forces and mercenaries .

By Ben Fishman – postsSenior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He served on the National Security Council staff during the Obama administration, including as Director for North Africa and Jordan.

L’article Tunisia’s Crisis Couldn’t Come At A Worse Time – For Libya est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Libya’s internationally recognised Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj said on Wednesday he wants to quit by the end of October, which could feed political tensions in Tripoli amid new efforts to find a political solution to the country’s conflict.

“I declare my sincere desire to hand over my duties to the next executive authority no later than the end of October,” he said in a televised speech.

Citing the work of UN-sponsored talks in Geneva, he pointed to progress in agreeing a way to unify Libya’s fragmented state and prepare for elections.

Sarraj is head of the Government of National Accord (GNA), based in Tripoli, while eastern Libya and much of the south is controlled by Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA).

The civil war has drawn in regional and international powers with the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia backing the LNA and Turkey supporting the GNA.

However, both sides are made up of unstable coalitions that have come under stress since Turkey helped the GNA turn back a 14-month LNA assault on Tripoli in June.

“This is effectively the starting gun for a new round of maneouvering for what comes next,” said Tarek Megerisi, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“Ultimately it’ll leave the GNA as an entity, and western Libya, a bit degraded,” he added.

An LNA blockade of energy exports since January has deprived the Libyan state of most of its usual revenue, worsening living standards and contributing to protests in cities controlled by both sides.

In Tripoli, the protests fuelled tensions between Sarraj and the influential Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha, whom he briefly suspended last month before restoring him to his post.

Libyan PM Sarraj’s resignation will ‘pave the way for more peace talks’

Sarraj’s departure could lead to new infighting among other senior GNA figures, and between the armed groups from Tripoli and Bashagha’s coastal city of Misrata that wield control on the ground.

“The militia issue will be more vivid,” said Jalel Harchoui, a research fellow at the Clingendael Institute.

Sarraj has headed the GNA since it was formed in 2015 as a result of a U.N.-backed political agreement aimed at uniting and stabilising Libya after the chaos that followed the 2011 uprising that ousted Muammar Gaddafi.

Looking back at the political career of Fayez al-Sarraj

Despite the failings and weakness of the government he led, he has been seen as a moderate with whom parts of the eastern faction and their foreign allies, as well as other international players, were comfortable dealing.

World Opinions – REUTERS

L’article Libya’s UN-backed PM Sarraj says he wants to quit by end of October est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.