Western foreign policy has destroyed the capacity of Libya and the Kingdom of Morocco to coordinate relief efforts amid the worsening effects of climate change
Global Research, September 14, 2023
Two devastating events have struck the North African states of the Kingdom of Morocco and Libya leaving thousands dead and tens of thousands more unaccounted for by international humanitarian agencies.
The flooding from Storm Daniel and two dam bursts in the North African state of Libya in and around the city of Derna is clearly related to the destruction of the country in 2011 at the aegis of the United States, Britain, France and their allies within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Since February 2011, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), State Department and the White House under former President Barack Obama set out to overthrow the ruling Jamahiriya socialist system led by the martyred statesman and Pan-Africanist Col. Muammar Gaddafi. Hillary Clinton, the then Secretary of State under Obama, laughed publicly about the assassination of Gaddafi which occurred amid the blanket bombing of the country by Pentagon and NATO forces.
After the overthrow of the Jamahiriya government there has been complete chaos in Libya as the imperialist states have attempted to remake the oil-rich nation in a framework of neo-colonial subservience to the leading western industrial states. There has been the absolute failure to form a unified administration with at least two centers of purported authority. One in Tripoli, the dysfunctional “Government of National Unity”, and yet another putative regime in the northeast of the country in Tobruk.
The capital in Tobruk, the so-called “House of Representatives” of the eastern region which claims to be the legitimate regime as well, was set alight during protest in 2022. Mass demonstrations occurred across the country in reaction to the disunity which has become institutionalized since the 2011 U.S.-NATO engineered counter-revolution.
These divisions and the lingering impact of the imperialist-instigated war of 2011 has left Libya defenseless in regard to preparations for the severe weather events which are plaguing areas all across Africa and the world. The necessary maintenance of two dams in the northeast areas of Libya have not taken place due to the lack of uniformity and the ongoing clashes between the western-backed factions which continue to battle over the ruins of the Libyan state.
At present the flooding and mass deaths are being reported in a distorted manner by the corporate and government-controlled media outlets based in the imperialist countries. One source, CBS News, said of the present situation:
“More than 2,000 bodies had been collected as of Wednesday (Sept. 13) morning. More than half of them were quickly buried in mass graves in Derna, according to Othman Abduljaleel, the health minister for the government that runs eastern Libya, the Associated Press reported. But Libya effectively has two governments – one in the east and one in the west – each backed by various well-armed factions and militias. The North African nation has writhed through violence and chaos amid a civil war since 2014, and that fragmentation could prove a major hurdle to getting vital international aid to the people who need it most in the wake of the natural disaster. Coordinating the distribution of aid between the separate administrations — and ensuring it can be done safely in a region full of heavily armed militias and in the absence of a central government — will be a massive challenge….”
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