Macron says no debate on French aid as toll soars to 10,000 in Morocco flood

Macron says no debate on French aid as toll soars to 10,000 in Morocco flood
by AFP Staff Writers
Paris (AFP) Sept 13, 2023

French President Emmanuel Macron said late Tuesday discussions about the state of French-Moroccan relations over aid for earthquake victims should "cease".

Morocco has not accepted French offers of help, giving rise to questions about tensions between both governments.

Experts say Morocco is unhappy with French efforts to get closer to its large neighbour Algeria, and longstanding plans for Macron to visit Morocco have not been confirmed.

Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, accusing its neighbour of "hostile acts".

"It is obviously up to His Majesty the King (Mohammed VI) and the government of Morocco to organise international aid in complete sovereignty and we are available to respond to their sovereign choice," Macron said in a video message posted on X, formerly Twitter.

"I would hope that all debate that divides, and that complicates this moment that is already so tragic, will cease as a matter of respect for everyone," he said.

Morocco on Sunday said it had accepted aid from Spain, Britain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, but did not seek help from France, its former colonial power.

Beyond the Algeria question, Morocco is also unhappy with France for not recognising the western Sahara as being Moroccan, unlike the United States and Israel.

In the absence of a direct aid request, France on Monday pledged five million euros ($5.4 million) to aid organisations already operating in Morocco.

Hopes have dimmed in the search for survivors after the earthquake that authorities say has killed more than 2,900 people, most of them in remote villages of the High Atlas Mountains.

Libyan city counts toll of huge flood, 10,000 missing
Derna, Libya (AFP) Sept 13, 2023 - Libya's eastern city of Derna was counting its dead Wednesday with 2,300 people confirmed killed in devastating flash floods unleashed by Storm Daniel and the Red Cross warning that 10,000 are missing.

Two river dams burst after the storm hit on Sunday afternoon, releasing an enormous surge of water that tore through the Mediterranean coastal city, sweeping away buildings and the people inside them.

By late Tuesday, the confirmed death toll from emergency services in the politically fractured North African country was at least 2,300, although some officials were quoted as giving figures more than twice as high.

Another 10,000 people were still missing, said Tamer Ramadan of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

"The death toll is huge and might reach thousands," Ramadan said.

"We don't have a definite number right now," he said on Tuesday, stressing though that the organisation had independent sources saying "the number of missing people is hitting 10,000 persons so far".

Media reports quoted a spokesman for the interior ministry of Libya's eastern-based government as saying "more than 5,200" people had died in Derna.

The city of Derna, a 300-kilometre (190 mile) drive east of Benghazi, is ringed by hills and bisected by what is normally a dry riverbed in summer, but which became a raging torrent of mud-brown water that also swept away several major bridges.

Derna was home to about 100,000 people, and many of its multi-storey buildings on the banks of the riverbed collapsed, with people, their homes and cars vanishing in the raging waters.

With global concern about the disaster spreading, several nations offered urgent aid and rescue teams to help the war-scarred country that has been overwhelmed by what one UN official called "a calamity of epic proportions".

Elsewhere in eastern Libya, aid group the Norwegian Refugee Council said on Tuesday that "entire villages have been overwhelmed by the floods and the death toll continues to rise".

"Communities across Libya have endured years of conflict, poverty and displacement. The latest disaster will exacerbate the situation for these people. Hospitals and shelters will be overstretched."

Oil-rich Libya is still recovering from years of war and chaos that followed the 2011 NATO-backed popular uprising which toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

The country is divided between two rival governments -- the UN-brokered, internationally recognised administration based in Tripoli, and a separate administration in the disaster-hit east.

Rescue teams from Turkey have arrived in eastern Libya, according to authorities. The United Nations and several countries offered to send aid, among them Algeria, Egypt, France, Italy, Qatar and Tunisia.

France is sending a field hospital and around 50 military and civilian personnel able to treat 500 people a day, Paris said on Tuesday.