AFP
Libya deplores “thousands” of deaths in flooded city
More than 2,300 people have died in floods which devastated the town of Derna in eastern Libya, according to emergency services, but authorities and the Red Cross fear a much higher toll on Tuesday. Oussama Ali, spokesperson for the Libyan “Rescue and Emergency Service” under the internationally recognized government in Tripoli, told AFP that the floods caused by Storm Daniel had left “more than 2,300 dead” and around 7,000 injured. in Derna, while more than 5,000 people are missing. According to him, at least 65 other people were killed in the storm in other cities and towns in eastern Libya. Officials of the rival government which sits in Eastern Libya claim that “thousands” of people have died in floods in Derna, a town of 100,000 inhabitants, with the Red Cross reporting an “enormous” toll. According to them, the two main dams on the small river of Wadi Derna failed during the night from Sunday to Monday, causing enormous mudslides, destroying bridges and carrying away many buildings with their inhabitants on each side of the wadi, before flowing into the Mediterranean. 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 be counted in the thousands and 10,000 missing “Humanitarian needs far exceed the capacities of the Libyan Red Crescent and even the capacities of the government,” said Tamer Ramadan, during the regular UN press briefing in Geneva. According to the IFRC, three Red Crescent volunteers Libyan died helping flood victims. – Apocalyptic landscape – 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 perished in Derna. “I expect the number of deaths to rise to 10,000,” warned the Minister of Health in this government, Othman Abdeljalil, on Monday evening, stressing that many neighborhoods were still inaccessible. Rescuers seem overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster, according to images filmed by residents of the region which circulate on social networks and show an apocalyptic landscape. Cut roads, landslides and floods have prevented the help to reach the population who had to manage by 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 the efforts of the authorities to restore the mobile telephone and internet networks. Since the great earthquake which shook the town of al-Marj (east) in 1963, it is the worst natural disaster experienced by Cyrenaica, the eastern province of Libya. Among the images most relayed by the media, some show dozens of remains wrapped in blankets or sheets, gathered on the main square of Derna under the trees of a square, awaiting their identification and burial, at Martouba, a small village located 27 km southeast of Derna. Photos show a body wrapped in a blanket in the back of a pickup truck, mounds of debris in the streets, facades of buildings gutted, or even overturned cars. – Humanitarian mobilization – Aid convoys from Tripolitania, in the West, were transported 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 Electricity Company to try to quickly restore the cut power. Teams of rescuers sent by Turkey and the United Arab Emirates also arrived in eastern Libya, according to the authorities. Algeria announced the sending of “important aid humanitarian” consisting of food and medical products, tents and clothing, aboard eight military aircraft. Egypt and Italy also announced sending aid. The United States Ambassador to Libya, Richard Norland, said the embassy had issued a “declaration of humanitarian need (which) will authorize the funding initial 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 for his part the head of diplomacy European, Josep Borrel.bra-rb/ezz/bfi