caption,
Derna was the most affected city
September 12, 2023
Updated 23 minutes ago
The devastating floods in Libya left at least 5,300 people dead in the port city of Derna and more than 10,000 missing in the country, Civil Aviation Minister Hichem Abu Chkiouat told Portal.
According to him, the number of deaths is expected to increase and even double.
“The sea constantly throws away dozens of corpses,” the minister said, adding that rebuilding the city would cost billions of dollars.
Teams are struggling to recover the bodies of victims swept out to sea by tsunamilike floods.
The scenario is the result of the collapse of two dams and four bridges in Derna, which resulted in the city the worsthit city in Libya virtually sinking when Hurricane Daniel hit the country on Sunday (10/09).
International aid arrives, but rescue efforts are hampered by the political situation in Libya, which is divided between two rival governments (more on this below).
The United States, Germany, Iran, Italy, Qatar and Turkey are among the countries that say they have sent or are sending aid.
Videos taken after dark on Sunday show a “river” formed by floodwaters crossing the city as cars move helplessly in the current. The country also suffered from landslides.
There are harrowing stories of people being swept into the sea while others clung to rooftops to survive.
“I was shocked by what I saw, it was like a tsunami,” said Hisham Chkiouat of the government that controls eastern Libya.
In the east, the cities of Benghazi, Soussa and AlMarj were badly affected. The western city of Misrata was also hit.
“Everyone says it looks like an apocalypse. The screams of the children, the bodies in the streets,” Johr Ali, a Libyan journalist who is in Istanbul but whose family is still in Libya, told the BBC.
Ali says he spoke to a family who were the only ones to survive the flooding in a neighborhood.
“They said when the floods receded, the water revealed the body of a woman hanging from a lamp post. In the end she died there.
caption,
The hurricane destroyed entire cities
Kasim AlQatani, an aid worker based in the town of Bayda, told the BBC that it was difficult for rescue teams to reach Derna as most roads into the town were blocked “due to the enormous damage.”
In addition, there is a shortage of drinking water in the city, which also suffers from a lack of medical care.
AlQatani reports that the only hospital in Derna can no longer accept patients because “there are more than 700 bodies waiting in the hospital and it is not that big.”
An investigation has been launched into why the floods caused such devastation.
Hydraulic engineering experts told the BBC it was likely that an upper dam, about 12km from the city, failed first and its water flowed towards the second dam, closer to the populated area of Derna.
Divided country
Political chaos has reigned in Libya since dictator Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed by a mob in 2011. Since then, the oilrich country has been divided, with an internationally recognized government operating from the capital Tripoli and another government in the east.
According to Libyan journalist Abdulkader Assad, this division complicates rescue efforts as the various authorities are unable to respond quickly to a natural disaster.
“There are no trained rescue teams in Libya. “The last 12 years have been all about war,” he told the BBC.
The Tripolibased government sent a plane carrying 14 tons of medical supplies, body bags and more than 80 doctors and paramedics.
US special envoy to Libya Richard Norton said Washington would send aid to eastern Libya in coordination with UN partners and Libyan authorities.