DISASTERS IN NORTH AFRICA: THOUSANDS DEAD AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FLOODING AS MOROCCO AND LIBYA COUNT LOSSES
DISASTERS IN NORTH AFRICA
THOUSANDS DEAD AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FLOODING
MOROCCO AND LIBYA COUNT LOSSES
A deadly
earthquake has hit Morocco.
The
death toll in the Morocco earthquake has now risen to 2,900 after a
6.8-magnitude earthquake shook the High Atlas Mountains southwest of Marrakech
on Friday. More than 5,500 people have reported injuries, more than twice the
previous tally.
Many
survivors complain of a lack of aid from Morocco's government.
This
earthquake is the North African nation's worst in more than 60 years.
After
four nights exposed to the elements, locals who have been left homeless are frustrated
with the emergency response.
Analysts
have attributed the sluggish and poorly coordinated disaster response to
Morocco’s constitutional monarchy, in which decision-making is highly
centralized and lower-level officials fear taking action without approval from
the royal palace.
Meanwhile,
in Nigeria, the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), under the leadership of His
Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto and the President-General, JNI, Sa’ad Abubakar,
has said it has monitored very closely the earthquake that ravaged some parts
of Morocco and concluded that it needs more international support and
humanitarian reliefs.
While
the world was still grappling with the Morocco Earthquake, tragedy struck in
another North African Country.
Libya
was hit by floods which wiped out about a quarter of city.
At
least 10,000 people were feared missing in Libya on Tuesday in floods caused by
a huge storm, which burst dams, swept away buildings and wiped out as much as a
quarter of the eastern city of Derna.
More
than 1,000 bodies had already been recovered in Derna alone, and officials
expected the death toll would be much higher, after Storm Daniel barrelled
across the Mediterranean into a country crumbling from more than a decade of
conflict.
A
Reuters journalist on the way to Derna, a coastal city of around 125,000
inhabitants, saw vehicles overturned on the edges of roads, trees knocked down,
and abandoned, flooded houses.
Bodies
were seen lying everywhere - in the sea, in the valleys, under the buildings.
"The
number of bodies recovered in Derna is more 1,000," an eye witness said.
"I am not exaggerating when I say that 25% of the city has disappeared.
Many, many buildings have collapsed"
It is expected the total number of dead across the country to reach more than 2,500, as the number of missing people was rising.
Tamer Ramadan, head of a delegation of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), told reporters in Geneva via video link from Tunisia: "We can confirm from our independent sources of information that the number of missing people is hitting 10,000 so far."
Videos
showed a wide torrent running through Derna's city centre after dams burst.
Ruined buildings stood on either side.
Footages broadcast by Libyan TV station al-Masar showed people searching for bodies and
men in a rubber boat retrieving one from the sea.
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