BENGHAZI: Over 5,000 people are presumed dead while over 10,000 are missing after devastating flash floods in northeastern Libya, local media reported on Wednesday.
Huge destruction devastated the Mediterranean coastal city of Derna, where tall buildings on the river banks collapsed, and cars and houses vanished in the flash floods.
According to the Libyan emergency services, the initial death toll is over 5,300, and in Derna city, which has seen the worst devastation, 6,000 people are missing, while around 7,000 are wounded.
According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), at least 10,000 people are missing, and the death toll is feared to increase.
“Our teams on the ground are still doing their assessment, but from what we see and from the news coming to us, the death toll is huge,” Ramadan revealed during a press conference in Geneva. “It might reach into the thousands; we don’t have a definite number right now.”
Libya Issued International Appeal for Support
Ramadan further emphasized that the humanitarian needs resulting from this disaster have surpassed the capacities of both the Libyan Red Crescent and the government. As a result, the eastern Libyan government has issued an international appeal for support, while the IFRC is preparing to launch an emergency appeal for funds to aid in the response efforts.
The World Health Organization’s spokeswoman, Margaret Harris, has described the situation in Libya as “a calamity of epic proportions.”
In eastern Libya, the coastal town of Jabal al-Akhdar and Benghazi are particularly hard-hit. A curfew has been declared in Benghazi, and schools remained closed for several days.
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The United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported that “entire neighborhoods” in Derna had vanished, with their inhabitants swept away by water, after two aging dams collapsed, leading to a catastrophic and uncontrollable situation.
Earlier, Prime Minister Oussama Hamad, speaking on the Libyan network Almasar, reported “more than 2,000 dead and thousands missing” in the city of Derna alone. While these figures have not been confirmed by medical sources or emergency services, Tamer Ramadan acknowledged that it seemed “very likely that the number declared by the eastern official could be close to the correct number.”
The IFRC is working diligently to provide a more precise estimate of the disaster’s toll as more information becomes available.
