Up to 10,000 people are feared dead in eastern Libya after raging floodwaters pummeled the area and dragged whole buildings into the sea.
Derna, a coastal city of about 90,000 residents, was the hardest hit, and officials there say 700 people killed in the floods have already been buried, with another 10,000 still missing, the Associated Press reports.
“We call on friendly countries to help us save what is left of Derna. The field hospital is filled with corpses,” said Othman Abdul Jalil, the health minister of the U.N.-recognized government in west Libya.
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“I expect numbers of dead will rise to 10,000,” he said.
Rescue teams were still working to retrieve bodies on Tuesday after Storm Daniel unleashed devastation on the North African country late Sunday, breaking two dams and carrying away entire neighborhoods.
“There are families still stuck inside their homes and there are victims under the rubble… I expect people have been washed away into the sea, and tomorrow [Tuesday] morning, we’ll find many of them,” Othman Abduljalil, health minister in Libya’s eastern parliament-backed government, said Monday, according to CNN.
Members of Libya’s Youth Hostels Association unload medical aid that arrived by plane at Al Abraq airport in Al Abraq, Libya, Sept. 12, 2023.
Reuters“I returned from Derna. It is very disastrous. Bodies are lying everywhere–in the sea, in the valleys, under the buildings. I am not exaggerating when I say 25 percent of the city has disappeared,” Hichem Chkiouat, minister of civil aviation and member of the emergency committee, was quoted as telling Reuters.
With rival governments in the east and west of the country and severely damaged infrastructure from a 2011 civil war, rescue efforts are expected to be grueling. The United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Jordan have sent teams to offer assistance in rescue and recovery efforts.
People stand on a damaged road as a powerful storm and heavy rainfall hit Shahhat city, Libya, Sept. 11, 2023.
Reuters“There are no rescue teams, there are no trained rescuers in Libya. Everything over the last 12 years was about war,” Libyan journalist Abdulkader Assad told the BBC.
“There are two governments in Libya... and that is actually slowing down the help that is coming to Libya because it’s a little bit confusing. You have people who are pledging help but the help is not coming.”
