The devastating floods in Derna, Libya, represent a “grim snapshot” of a world “swept away by the torrent of inequalities and injustices”, the UN said today. UN secretary generaltalking about the impact of “scourges”, from climate change to perennial conflicts.

“Just nine days ago we saw a picture of hell, a horrible landscape, a consequence of the combination of many problems that the world has been facing,” said Antonio Guterres in his opening speech at the UN General Assembly in New York. Successive plagues struck the thousands of people who lost their lives in Derna. “They were the victims of years of conflict. Victims of climate chaos. Victims of leaders who, both there and elsewhere, could not find the way to peace,” Guterres continued. “And these people died at the center of indifference: within 24 hours, the sky dropped a hundred times the amount of rain it falls in a month; the dams gave way after years of war and neglect, and everything the inhabitants knew was wiped off the map “, he added.

“Even now, bodies wash up on Mediterranean beaches while billionaires sunbathe on their yachts. “Derna is a painful snapshot of the state of our world, swept away by the flood of inequalities and injustices and paralyzed in the face of the challenges it has to face,” Guterres stressed.

The secretary-general presented an ominous picture of the international landscape, with geopolitical tensions “exacerbating and climate change, a “threat that endangers our future”. As he said, the measures taken so far “do not correspond to the height of the stake” and warned that “in the face of all these crises, the global humanitarian system is on the verge of collapse”.

“Our humanitarian operations are necessarily being cut. But if we don’t give food to those who are hungry, then we will fuel the conflicts,” he concluded.