2023-09-12 12:33:41
Floods caused by Storm Daniel have killed more than 2,200 people in the eastern Libyan town of Derna, according to the director of a hospital in the town. Some 5,000 people are still missing on Tuesday, and the authorities and the Red Cross fear a much higher toll.
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Floods that devastated the town of Derna, in eastern Libya, left 2,200 dead, the director of a hospital in the town told Archyde.com on Tuesday (September 12). Mohamad al-Qabisi, specifying that 1,700 people had died in one of the two districts of the city and 500 more in the other district.
Earlier, Osama Ali, spokesperson for the Libyan Rescue and Emergency Service, which has had a team in Derna since Monday, described a “shocking and very dramatic situation”.
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Huge mudslides, imported bridges and buildings
Officials of the rival government in eastern Libya say that “thousands” of people have died in floods in Derna, a town of 100,000 inhabitants, with the Red Cross reporting a toll ” huge”.
According to them, the two main dams on the small river of Wadi Derna failed during the night from Sunday to Monday, causing huge mudslides, destroying bridges and sweeping away many buildings with their inhabitants on each side of the wadi. , before flowing into the Mediterranean.
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An official from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said Tuesday that the floods in Libya had caused an “enormous” number of deaths which could number in the thousands and 10,000 missing. .
“The humanitarian needs far exceed the capacities of the Libyan Red Crescent and even the capacities of the government,” indicated Tamer Ramadan, during the regular UN press briefing in Geneva. According to the IFRC, three Libyan Red Crescent volunteers died helping flood victims.
The spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior of the Eastern government, quoted by the media, for his part affirmed that “more than 5,200” people had died in Derna. “I expect the number of deaths to rise to 10,000,” warned Monday evening the Minister of Health in this government, Othman Abdeljalil, stressing that many neighborhoods were still inaccessible.
Cut roads, landslides and floods prevented help from reaching the population who had to use rudimentary means to recover bodies and extract survivors on the verge of drowning.
Derna and other towns are cut off from the rest of the world despite authorities’ efforts to restore mobile phone and internet networks.
Mobilization of international aid
Aid convoys from Tripolitania in the west were sent to Derna. The Tripoli government, led by Abdelhamid Dbeibah, announced the dispatch of two ambulance planes and a helicopter, 87 doctors, a team of rescuers and dog searchers as well as technicians from the National Emergency Company. electricity to try to quickly restore the lost power.
Rescue teams from Turkey and the United Arab Emirates also arrived in eastern Libya, according to authorities.
Algeria announced the sending of “significant humanitarian aid” consisting of food and medical products, tents and clothing, aboard eight military planes. Egypt and Italy also announced sending aid.
U.S. Ambassador to Libya Richard Norland said the embassy had issued a “declaration of humanitarian need (which) will authorize the initial funding that the United States will provide in support of relief efforts in Libya.”
For its part, “the EU is closely monitoring the situation and stands ready to provide its support,” indicated the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrel.
With AFP and Archyde.com
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