2023-09-12 14:14:55
In the town of Derna alone, more than 2,300 deaths have been recorded.
Torrents of mud and collapsed buildings. Videos from Libya which continue to flood into social networks on Tuesday, September 12, show the extent of the damage caused by Storm Daniel in the east of the country. On Sunday afternoon, heavy rainfall quickly caused flooding and engulfed dozens of localities, particularly coastal ones.
In an alert launched on Tuesday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) put forward a chilling figure: according to the latest news, “the number of missing is close to 10,000”, which raises fears of a heavy human toll. For its part, the Libyan Rescue and Emergency Service reports 2,300 dead and 7,000 injured in the town of Derna, ravaged by the floods. Overview of this disaster which, according to the IFRC, “exceeds greatly” emergency services present on site.
The northeast coast trapped by waters
After devastating several regions of Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece, storm Daniel ended its course on Sunday in the Libyan desert. Described as “Medicane”, contraction of Méditerranée and hurricane (“hurricane”, in English), this extreme phenomenon forced local authorities to declare a state of emergency, in accordance with alerts from the Libyan Meteorological Center. Trapped between torrents and the sea, it was the coastal towns of Cyrenaica, a region in the north-east of the country, which were hardest hit.
According to local media, such as the TV channel Al Ahrar, the towns of Al Bayda and Shahat suffered very significant damage. But the one that social networks talk about the most remains Derna, where the buildings along the river of the same name are covered in mud and debris – when they have not been swept away by the waves.
“Entire neighborhoods of Derna disappeared, and their inhabitants were swept away by the waters after the collapse of two aging dams, making the situation catastrophic and out of control”, deplored the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a UN agency. According to a provisional report, given Tuesday by local emergency services, more than 2,300 people have died in this city alone.
Vehicles overturned by the waves
Tuesday morning, survivors of this disaster were trying to find their loved ones and neighbors in a post-apocalyptic setting, including streets littered with overturned cars and trucks, proof of the violence of the torrents. In places, roads collapsed and bridges were seriously damaged. But the real extent of these floods is not yet known. The roads and telecommunications networks, already poorly performing before the storm, have indeed suffered considerable damage.
A truck pushed to the side of the road by floods in Derna (Libya), September 11, 2023. (LIBYAN PRIME MINISTER IN BENGHAZI / AFP)
Emergency services in this region, themselves affected by the floods, are trying to locate survivors and provide them with first aid. But their means are very limited, in a country divided between two rival heads of government, and weakened by a decade of violence and political instability. Tuesday at dawn, a first plane loaded with 14 tons of medical equipment took off towards the east of the country, announced the Libyan Ministry of Health (of the Tripoli government) on Facebookwhile the humanitarian circuit is gradually opening up to neighboring countries.
International aid to help an overwhelmed government
To lend a hand to rescuers, Italy and Turkey have already sent teams and resources. Tunisia, Egypt and Qatar have also committed to helping Libya. On the French side, Paris stands ready to send “emergency help” to the affected populations, as announced on Tuesday by the Quai d’Orsay, “in support of Libyan efforts on the ground and in coordination with the United Nations”.
Rescuers from Turkey unload a boat on the tarmac of an airport in Libya, September 12, 2023. (ANADOLU AGENCY / AFP)
Drinking water, food, clothing, care kits: while the flood continues slowly, humanitarian needs are “considerable”, alerted the IFRC. To prevent infections and the spread of disease, the recovery of human and animal corpses from stale water becomes a priority.
The streets of the town of Marj (Libya), flooded after the passage of storm Daniel, September 11, 2023. (AP / SIPA)
As the toll of lives lost continues to increase, three deaths were added to this sad count on Tuesday. These are volunteer rescuers from the Libyan Red Crescent, killed “while they were on duty to help families stranded by floods”said Tuesday on Twitter the Secretary General of the IFRC, Jagan Chapagain.
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