There's a desperate search for thousands of people missing after a powerful storm burst dams near the Mediterranean city of Derna on 10 September.

That event unleashed a torrent of water that devastated at least a quarter of Derna's buildings. Buildings along with their residents were washed away.

Many people are missing. Many are believed to have been swept out to sea.

As corpses continue to be washed ashore, catastrophic flooding continues.

Confusion and devastation

While initial reports estimated about 6,000 people died in the 10 September event, subsequent reports speak of at least 11,300 deaths and 10,100 missing people.

However, the UN says revised numbers are somewhat lower.

The UN says at least 3,958 people have died, citing UN World Health Organisation (WHO) figures. A further 9,000 or more people are still missing.

In addition, the UN says as at 17 September over 40,000 people were displaced, according to data from the International Organisation for Migration.

The figures are expected to change as search-and-rescue efforts continue to look for survivors.

As telecommunications have been interrupted, roads destroyed and electricity towers toppled, rescue efforts are being hampered however, causing further hardship for survivors.

Prayer and practical help

Pope Francis has voiced his "heartfelt spiritual closeness" to the people of Libya through communication with the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai.

He says he hopes others will join him in praying for the injured, those anxious for loved ones, emergency workers and "for the souls of the deceased and all who mourn their loss."

The Holy Father invoked divine blessings of consolation, strength and perseverance upon all affected by the tragedy.

Calling for global solidarity to help Libya's suffering people, he said "May we not fail in our solidarity with these brothers and sisters, tried by such a devastating calamity."

What practical global solidarity might include

The International Rescue Committee says it is "gravely concerned about the protection needs of those caught up in this tragedy, especially thousands of women and children who have to leave their homes in search of safety."

It is calling for urgent emergency shelters and psycho-social support.

Medical services that need support have been impacted.

There are displaced patients and an overwhelming demand for medical help. There are damaged ambulances that need repairing. There are physical access challenges and logistical support needs.

There are fears about waterborne diseases.

Derna lacks clean drinking water. Medical supplies are lacking. The city's hospital is reportedly overwhelmed with the number of dead.

Caritas

Caritas - the Catholic Relief Agency - is helping assess the damage and getting help to the most needy," says Caritas's Australia's Humanitarian Emergencies Associate Director.

"Libya has been in a state of civil war since 2011, which has led to a significant loss of life and has forced many people to flee from their homes and become displaced.

"Despite a ceasefire since 2020, there is still political instability as well as damage and disruption to infrastructure," a Caritas statement says.

Source

• CathNews Australia
• Vatican News
• Crux
• Reuters
• CNN

The children, wearing T-shirts reading "Welcome, Protect, Promote, Integrate", hailed from Syria, Nigeria and the Congo, and were airlifted out of Libya along with their families on April 29.

A smiling Francis took them on board for a ride around the packed square during his weekly general audience, stopping several times along the way to kiss and bless babies held up to him from the crowd. Read more

In a new report titled "Libya's Dark Web of Collusion", Amnesty International says the EU finances the Libyan coastguard and officials running the country's detention camps to carry out torture and exploitation.

At present, the human rights group says about 20,000 people are detained in detention centers in Libya.

The aim is to stem the flow of people across the Mediterranean to Europe "... with little thought, or seeming care for the consequences for those trapped in Libya as a result."

Irregular entry, stay and exit are criminal offences in Libya.

"The lack of any judicial oversight of the detention process and the near total impunity with which officials operate has facilitated the institutionalisation of torture and other ill-treatment in detention [centers]," the Amnesty report says.

The organisation further reports the EU "routinely acts in collusion with militia groups and people traffickers to 'make money from human suffering'".

After ships, training and funding from the EU and Italy were provided to the Libyan coastguard, Amnesty says the number of arrivals in Italy fell by 67% between July and November compared with the same period in 2016.

Deaths at sea have correspondingly reduced.

Furthermore, Amnesty says the coastguard and those to whom they hand over refugees, migrants and asylum seekers, are often acting with criminal gangs and militia.

Amnesty claims the coastguard and smugglers sometimes mark boats to allow vessels to pass through Libyan waters without interception.

At the same time, the coastguard sometimes escorts boats out to international waters.

Refugees and migrants intercepted on their way to Europe are sent to camps run by the Libyan general directorate for combating illegal migration.

They are then routinely tortured for money, Amnesty reports.

Source

• The Guardian
• National Public Radio,Inc
• Aljazeera
• Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation News

He sits in a migrant detention centre in Zawya, Libya, surrounded by hundreds of fellow asylum seekers who nearly died this week at sea.

They survived only after being intercepted, detained and brought back to shore by Libyan coastguards, ending a week in which they went round in circles, starving and utterly lost.

But despite their horror stories, Abdallah, 21, says the journey that his fellow inmates barely withstood - and that killed more than 450 others this week - is his only option.

"I cannot go back to my country," says Abdallah, who is from Darfur, in Sudan. He left for what is now South Sudan in 2006, after he says his village was destroyed in the Darfur war, his father died, and his sisters raped.

But in South Sudan, another war later broke out. So he made his way through the Sahara, a journey that he says killed his brother and cousin, to Libya.

And there last year, he was witness to his third civil war in a decade - a war that still drags on, its frontline just a few miles from the camp at Zawya.

"There is a war in my country, there's no security, no equality, no freedom," Abdallah says. "But if I stay here, it's just like my country. There is no security, there is violence. When you work, they take your money."

He worked in a soap shop, and saved up to pay local smugglers for the boat to Europe. But just as he hoped to complete the payment, he was robbed, and then arrested.

The recounting of his ordeal brings out first the tears, and then a conclusion: "I need to go to Europe." Continue reading

Source and Image:

• The Guardian

Martyrdom was not new to them or their people. For nearly two thousand years, their Church had prided itself as being the Church of the Martyrs.

If martyrdom was a central feature of the early Church, it had become the hallmark of its identity in Egypt.

Even as early as the third century, a quote attributed to Tertullian declared: "If the martyrs of the whole world were put on one arm of the balance and the martyrs of Egypt on the other, the balance would tilt in favour of the Egyptians."

From the blood of Saint Mark the Evangelist shed in Alexandria in 68 AD, the river continued to flow, each century adding its martyrs.

The names of the persecutors had changed; Romans and Byzantines and Arabs, Emperors and Caliphs and Kings. Each had contributed his share, each had attempted to end their faith, and each in turn had failed.

The horrific murder of twenty Copts and a Ghanaian Christian at the hands of Islamic State militants in Libya in February was followed by swift condemnations from around the world. Most world leaders described the victims the way they identified themselves - as Coptic Christians.

Pope Francis recognised that they had been "killed simply for the fact that they were Christians," and that "their blood confesses Christ."

Their murderers certainly concurred. They had searched the workers' compoundlooking for Copts - "people of the cross" they named them in the video.

Their beheading was in revenge for Kamilia Shehata, the wife of a Coptic priest, who had briefly disappeared in July 2010 before returning to her family.

Soon her cause became a rallying cry for Egyptian Salafis convinced that she had been prevented from converting to Islam and held against her will by the Church. Continue reading

Source & Image:

• ABC Religion & Ethics

In a letter to a meeting of the International Labour Conference, the Pope wrote that mass migration is a "grave issue".

Pope Francis called for a "concerted effort . . . to encourage governments to facilitate the movement of migrants for the benefit of all, thus eliminating human trafficking and perilous travel conditions".

Last month, there were two shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea of vessels carrying migrants from Africa.

The Libyan Government said it could not cope with numbers arriving at their borders from sub-Saharan African countries and would be forced to "facilitate" the movement of migrants to Europe.

But Italy, with its southern-most island of Lampedusa just 80 miles off the north African coast, is overwhelmed by migrants arriving at its shores.

It said that unless it receives more help with sea patrols, it would defy European Union rules obliging migrants to stay in the country where they land and allow them to travel further into Europe.

Some 40,000 people have made the crossing in recent months, often on overcrowded and unseaworthy boats.

Hundreds of thousands more said to be awaiting a passage to Europe, in camps run by criminal gangs, on the coastline of Libya.

In his letter, Pope Francis said people in mass migrations often encounter "mistrust and exclusion" and often fail to find dignified work.

Echoing a phrase he used during a visit to Lampedusa last year, the Pope wrote that such people often fall victim to a "globalisation of indifference".

In his letter, the Pope also lamented that unemployment is "is tragically expanding the frontiers of poverty".

It is time, the Pope wrote, "to reinforce existing forms of cooperation and to establish new avenues for expanding solidarity".

Among measures he recommended were: "A re-evaluation of the responsibilities of international corporations in the countries where they operate, including the areas of profit and investment management".

Sources

• The Tablet
• Asia News
• Image: Catholic World Report

Also suffering are places where we have only in recent years seen such violence: Nigeria, and in many parts of central Africa, in Russia and across central Asia, and in Burma, Thailand and the Philippines.

We can either see all of these acts of killing as separate - produced by various political contexts - or we can start to see the clear common theme and start to produce a genuine global strategy to deal with it.

The fact is that, though of course there are individual grievances or reasons for the violence in each country, there is one thing self-evidently in common: the acts of terrorism are perpetrated by people motivated by an abuse of religion.

It is a perversion of faith. Continue reading.

Tony Blair is a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and founder of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.

Source: The Guardian

Image: livinginphilistia.blogspot.com

The lineamenta for the Synod of Bishops' meeting in Rome in 2010 used the word several times. On June 23, 2011, the Holy Synod of Antioch (Greek Orthodox Patriarchate) called upon governments to secure "citizens' interests."

The notion of citizenship in these documents is not determined by ethnicity, linguistic grouping, confessional affiliation or the like.

In the present conflict in Egypt, reference to democracy is a dead end, since in different ways both sides are claiming—neither with overwhelming credibility—to be on the side of democracy.

Democracy in Egypt cannot work until a notion of citizenship is enshrined in law and practice.

For democracy to succeed in Egypt, all citizens—Muslims, Christians, secularists, moderates as well as the Muslim Brotherhood—must be guaranteed equal rights and obligations before the law.

When Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in Tunisia on Dec. 17, 2010, the Arab Spring began. Now, three years later, the results hoped for by people inside and outside the Middle East have clearly not been realised.

Iraq is still violently divided between Sunnis, Shiites and an increasingly autonomous Kurdish region.

Syria has sunk into a brutal civil war with over 110,000 casualties and 6.25 million citizens displaced to Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan or within Syria itself. Most recently, Egypt's experiment with democracy has at best been sidetracked. Continue reading.

Source: America Magazine

Image: BBC

Instilling democracy and a culture of freedom, said Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako, requires education and a sound strategy for the long term.

But toppling a totalitarian regime and replacing it with one that is fundamentalist "is even worse", he said.

Continue reading

There were five possibilities for Gadaffi's future, says William Oddie

• The least desirable of all was for him to disappear into the desert, to become the anti-hero of a national myth;
• Trial in Libya;
• A trial in the Hague;
• A courageous death in battle;
• What actually happened: the ignominious death of a coward in flight, summarily executed by his captors.

"Of all these possibilities," says Oddie "it seems to me that what actually happened was the least undesirable."... "His end was barbaric and uncivilised; all the same, repugnant in every way though his death was, it was better than any of the other options. There are situations in which there is no desirable option: and this was one." Read Oddie's reasons for saying this.

Commenting on President Obama's speech in his Eureka St blog Michael Mullins writes, "The sombre tone was appropriate, as was his implicit distinction between the Gaddafi regime and Gaddafi the man. The regime was odious, while the man undoubtedly suffered from some form of mental illness that had unspeakably tragic consequences for the people of Libya."

"He was human and deserved a degree of compassion..." he said.

Fr. Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, pointed out the price of human suffering that accompanies the collapse of the regimes that have no respect for human dignity.

In its statement the Vatican expressed hope that the bloodshed would end in the North African country, and that the new Libyan government would open a rebuilding phase based on "a spirit of inclusion" and social justice.

The statement was issued by the Vatican press office several hours after Gaddafi was reported killed in his home town of Sirte.

The statement said the Vatican considers the transitional government as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people. The Vatican, it said, has already had various contacts with the new authorities in Libya, through the Libyan Embassy to the Vatican, at the United Nations and in Libya.

It said the apostolic nuncio to Libya, who resides in Malta, had gone to Libya for talks in early October with the provisional prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, and other officials.

"In these diverse encounters, both sides underlined the importance of the diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Libya. The Holy See had the opportunity to renew its support for the Libyan people and its support for the transition," the Vatican said.

The officials of Libya's new government have expressed appreciation for the humanitarian appeals of Pope Benedict XVI and for the Church's service in Libya, in particular the work of 13 religious communities in hospitals or assistance centres.

Source

• CatholicHerald.co.uk William Oddie
• Vatican Radio Vatican Statement
• Eureka St
• Image: The Otago Daily Times

"Life begins to return slowly back to normality. There are no particular difficulties," the bishop said.

"In the past days Masses were celebrated without problems and safely," he added.

"Among the Catholics present in Libya I once again want to recall the Filipina nurses who have remained to ensure their service even in the most difficult moments. These people have left everything to serve the sick in hospitals.

"The new authorities are working to ensure order and safety," he continued.

The priority is to make normal the security of the people and working for a lasting peace, the bishop reported to Fides.

Speaking from Italy where he is receiving medical treatment, Martinelli said he was not able to officially confirm a statement from Human Rights Watch that the National Transitional Council is arbitrarily arresting and abusing African migrant workers and black Libyans assumed to be mercenaries, however he said he has been told there has been some exacerbation against African migrants.

Sources

• Fides
• Human Rights Watch
• Image: Yale Journal of Human Rights

Libyan Catholics were permitted to worship under Qaddafi's leadership and there are reports from rebel-led areas that the Church is functioning without restriction, though some uncertainty remains.

"The future is very uncertain but the signs from the parts of the country that have been under rebel control since March is that Catholic priests and nuns are still being allowed to go about their business as usual. So we hope that's a good sign for the future," a senior local Church source, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons, told CNA.

There has been concern recently for the safety of a Franciscan community based in Tripoli's sole Catholic Church.

However CNA reports that while their situation is not easy, they are well.

Bishop Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli to Fides, who is currently in Italy, told Fides he is keen to return to Tripoli but has been advised against it.

"I am anxious to return to Tripoli to be with the community and the priests. Unfortunately so far I have been recommended not to leave because the usual routes to return to Libya are blocked. The fact that several Libyans are returning home, however, gives me hope to go back soon."

"In Libya there are wonderful, intelligent and well-prepared people, who can lead the country. There are elites able to take control of the situation and plan the future of the country, preserving its unity," Martinelli said.

Meanwhile, Secretary of the World Evangelical Alliance, Dr Geoff Tunnicliffe, wants to see Libya become a country where human rights and religious liberty is respected.

"As Libya transitions to a new era after decades of oppression, it is our hope that its new leaders will develop a government that truly represents the aspirations of its people," Tunnicliffe said.

"We believe that a commitment to seek reconciliation, to establish justice based upon internationally accepted legal principles, and to promote human rights and religious liberty for every citizen is in the best interests of all Libyans."

There are an estimated 100,000 Catholics in Libya and around 25 Catholic priests working in the country, mainly based in Tripoli and the city of Benghazi. 60 religious women work in the country's hospital system.

Sources

• Fides
• CNA
• Christianity Today
• CISA News Africa

"Currently there are three Franciscan friars barricaded in the convent in Tripoli," a source told the Vatican-based Fides news on Aug. 23. "No one dares to walk in the street because people are shot on sight, even if it is not clear who shoots who."

Bishop Giovanni Martinelli's outspoken criticism of the human toll the war is taking has given the impression the Vatican's longtime apostolic vicar supported Gaddafi's 42-year regime. That was fueled further by his presence at the funeral for Qaddafi's son.

Martinelli told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he is speaking according to his own conscience but has taken inspiration from Pope Benedict XVI's own calls for diplomacy to prevail.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, praised Martinelli as an authoritative voice on the situation in Libya who is tending as a pastor to his people under difficult circumstances. He said the Holy See in no way distances itself from his remarks.

Martinelli attended the funeral of Gaddafi's youngest son and three grandchildren and earlier was at the morgue with clergymen from other denominations, a scene broadcast on Libyan state TV. The group stood near metal gurneys holding two adult-sized bodies covered with green Libyan flags and two smaller bundles covered by white sheets.

"The bombardments were clearly seeking to remove the leader — and I cannot share this position on eliminating the leader," Martinelli told The AP in a telephone interview from Libya. "It is the people that must be able decide whether or not to change him." He said he interprets Benedict's calls for diplomacy to prevail as a clear indication that the pope opposes the NATO strikes and supports negotiations with Qaddafi — though Benedict has not spoken in such direct terms.

Meanwhile Russia has also criticised NATO bombing for causing civilian casualties. According to Moscow, the alliance is using disproportionate force and going beyond the terms of Resolution 1973.

"The disproportional use of force, all the more so, beyond the mandate of UN Security Council Resolution No. 1973, which in no way stipulates the replacement of the Libyan leadership, is leading to harmful consequences and the death of civilians," a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said.

"We are again calling for strict compliance with the provisions of the decisions made by the international community on the Libyan conflict, for an immediate ceasefire and the start of a political settlement without any preconditions," the statement added.

Sources

• AsiaNews.it
• Arab News
• Image: YouTube

"The risk of providing weapons to rebels in Benghazi is a way of not ending the war, [but] rather a way to lengthening it."

"We hope that in our small way we can grow the seed of reconciliation which only the power of God can give."

Martinelli called for an immediate cease-fire and urged the the parties to dialogue.

The bishop is also trying to keep the power struggle between Moamar Gadhafi and the anti-government rebels out of his church.

Associated Press however reports it's getting harder.

Recently after Mass, several Muslim women, supporters of Gadhafi, followed the bishop into the vestry, tearfully demanding he contact the Vatican to get the pope to stop the NATO airstrikes, while some of his parishioners, those who remain in Tripoli, are using St Francis Church as a sanctuary.

The parishioners dread going into the streets because they are frequently stopped and harassed by Gadhafi's security forces.

The war has hit Tripoli's christian communities particularly hard.

Bishop Martinelli said attempts to dislodge Gadhafi by force will only make him more determined.

"He is Bedouin, he is very strong," the bishop said, tapping his forehead to illustrate hard-headedness.

Martinelli said his flock of 100,000 in the greater Tripoli area has dwindled to about 5,000. The Greek Orthodox community has shrunk from around 1,000 to fewer than a dozen. The Union Church is down from 1,200 to 250 parishioners.

Some of those who stayed, especially Africans who lack proper papers, said they rarely leave their homes these days because Tripoli is full of checkpoints, part of the clampdown by Gadhafi's forces to prevent anti-government protests.

Lucky John, 30, a Nigerian parishioner at St. Francis, said the forces often stop migrants and check their passports and the sim cards on their mobile phones.

John, who worked as a driver for a Turkish construction company until the uprising began on February 15, said many of his friends have left Libya. "I stay by the faith of the almighty God," he said, speaking after Mass Friday. "Maybe this will be solved."

Sources:

• Fides
• Associated Press

He appealed to international organisations and to "those who bear political and military responsibilities to immediately begin talks aimed at the suspension of the use of weapons."

Most recently he said that in times of high tension "the need becomes more urgent to resort to every means of diplomatic action and to support the 'weak signs' of willingness to find 'peaceful and lasting solutions.'"

He prayed for "a return to concord" in Libya and the entire North African region.

Sources

UCAnews.com
ENInews
The Christian Century
USAtoday.com

"The government is struggling to repatriate thousands of migrant workers and we can't help them directly. With the assistance of the Vatican embassy in Dhaka, we asked the Libyan Church via the Italian bishops' conference to shelter Bangladeshis," Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace chairman Bishop Gervas Rozario of Rajshahi, said yesterday.

"Since our appeal, several churches in Libya are currently sheltering many Bangladeshi migrants. Now there's nothing else we can do from but help support the government which is under huge pressure," the bishop said.

Reports say there are around 89,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers still in Libya where protesters are embroiled in a bloody conflict to oust long-term dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

About 5,500 workers have returned home so far and at least five were killed.

For the Bangladesh government it's a gigantic task and the Labour Ministry has expressed regret it can only bring back around 25,000 with help from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

There are several hundred Christian migrant workers in Libya. A few of them have already got home safely.

"Returning home means landing in heaven from hell for me. I've left everything in Libya, but I'm happy to get home in one piece," said Sentu Richard Gomes, 27, a Catholic from Deogaon near Dhaka, who returned home three days ago.

"In Libya around 100 rebels attacked us, stole everything we had and torched the building we were hiding in. We had no choice but to flee. I fled to Egypt, starved for days and then came back to Bangladesh with help from the IOM."

Thousands of migrant workers from other Asian countries are still waiting to come home.

Source:
ucanews.com
Photo: Daily Mail