The scale of the disaster in Libya is still unclear, days after two catastrophic dam collapses on Sunday, with a local official confirming on Tuesday evening that the death toll has now exceeded 5,300.
The Red Cross has said at least 10,000 people are missing after catastrophic flooding in the port city of Derna over the weekend. Local officials have warned that many of those yet to be found are likely to have died.
The raging torrent of mud-brown water swept away several major bridges, while many of the city’s multi-storey buildings on the banks of the riverbed collapsed.
Tariq al-Kharraz, a representative of Libya’s eastern government, said entire neighbourhoods had been washed away, with many bodies swept out to sea.
The city, with a population of 90,000, is bisected by the Wadi Derna, a seasonal river that flows from highlands further south, and is normally protected from flooding by dams. Satellite images like the one below show the scale of the destruction after one of the dams, visible in the bottom left corner, collapsed on Sunday.
Libya has seen years of war and chaos after a popular uprising in 2011 which toppled and killed the country’s longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
The country is divided between two rival governments – the UN-brokered, internationally recognised administration based in Tripoli, and a separate administration in the disaster-hit east.
Investment in roads and public services has dwindled and there has been minimal regulation of private building. Derna was for several years controlled by Islamist militant groups until it was captured in 2019 by Gen Khalifa Haftar, the warlord in charge of an army in the east.
Other areas close to Derna were also badly affected, including the town of Bayda, where about 50 people were reported dead, as well as the town Marj, where images from before and after the floods laid bear the extent of damage to fields and farmland.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
