American President Joe Biden announced that the US “is sending emergency funds to humanitarian organizations and is coordinating with the Libyan authorities and the United Nations to provide further support”. Vladimir Putin’s Russia is also ready to “provide the necessary assistance”. The European Union, through the President of the EU Council Charles Michel, said it was “ready to help the people affected by this disaster” and spoke of “heartbreaking images”.

The UN, announced the representative for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths, is mobilizing emergency teams. Three planes loaded with aid and personnel sent by Turkey are already in the African country and Algeria has set up an airlift of eight military aircraft to deliver essential goods. France, for its part, has decided to send a civil protection field hospital.

The first aid brings some slivers of hope to the survivors. But another catastrophe is around the corner: the cholera epidemic, an inevitable corollary of polluted waters and decomposing bodies