New York (AFP)
More people appear to have died from illnesses linked to the September 11, 2001 attacks than on the day of the attacks, according to a report by the victims' compensation fund released on Tuesday.
More than 67,000 compensation claims have been made to this fund since it opened in 2011 to people who were near places struck by al-Qaeda jihadists 20 years ago and have since developed pathologies. .
Most involve people living or working near the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, whose collapse released toxic fumes that blanketed the neighborhood for weeks.
Almost half of the files relate to cancer patients and 3,900 were filed in the name of deceased people.
"It means that the death toll of people whose death seems to have been caused by illnesses linked to September 11 is now higher than that of people who died on September 11," said Rupa Bhattacharyya, the fund manager.
On this historic day, nearly 3,000 people died after the hijacking of four airliners, two of which crashed into Manhattan skyscrapers, one in the Pentagon and another in a wooded area of Pennsylvania. after a passenger counterattack.
A compensation fund was created shortly after, for the relatives of the disappeared and the survivors.
In 2011, a law had relaunched it and extended to new audiences after the appearance of cancers, especially among firefighters and people who cleared the rubble in New York.
In 2019, its mandate was extended until 2090.
Requests continue to flow in, with 900 new cases filed each month in 2021, according to Ms. Bhattacharyya, for whom it is still difficult to estimate the total toll of the tragedy.
"The tragedy of 9/11 continues," she noted.
So far, the fund has judged more than 41,000 legitimate cases, of which 2,132 relate to deceased people, and has paid out a total of nearly $ 9 billion in compensation.
President Joe Biden will visit the three sites of the drama on Saturday to "pay tribute and commemorate the lives lost" in these attacks that have rocked America and the world.
© 2021 AFP