TRIPOLI (AFP)
About a dozen women hunch over sewing machines in Libya’s capital, urgently making clothes for the living and shrouds for the dead, two weeks after a huge flood devastated the eastern city of Derna.
The tragedy that killed thousands in the north African country has sparked a nationwide sense of solidarity.
“Our centre was already helping needy families, so you can imagine our mobilisation when it involves a disaster of this magnitude,” said Mohamed Kamour, the director of the centre that trains women to become dressmakers. Since the flood struck on September 10, the apprentices have worked at full speed, cutting and sewing fabric for the needy in Derna, a city more than 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) to the east.
All normal courses have been suspended to join the aid effort, said Kamour, whose workshop usually helps widows and divorced women gain financial independence.
“That is the priority,” he said. “We interrupted all types of training.”
The workshop has already sent 1,300 school uniforms, 850 abayas, and 650 shrouds to cover corpses to Derna, and a second shipment is being prepared.
Derna had a population of about 100,000 before the flash flood broke through two ageing dams, following the hurricane-strength storm that lashed the area.
The official death toll passed 3,800 on Saturday.
International aid groups said that the flood, which witnesses likened to a tsunami, may have left 10,000 or more people missing.
Many were swept into the sea, from where bodies are still washing ashore. Others are thought to be buried beneath the mud and debris that carpets entire neighbourhoods of Derna.
Despite Libya’s political split, Kamour said he received the requests of stricken residents from charities based in the east, and has stepped up production in response to the crisis.
Karima Wanis, the 39-year-old centre’s trainer, said she feels as if she lost members of her own family.
While sewing machines hummed in the background, she said that it is “normal to come to the aid of our Derna brothers”.
“We are part of the same family,” Wanis said. “West or East. Ultimately, it’s Libya that unites us.”