Catastrophic storm floods have killed at least 2,300 people in the coastal city of Derna, according to Libyan emergency services, as local officials say around a quarter of the eastern city was wiped away when a dam burst. Thousands more people are reported missing.
More than 10,000 people are still missing while about 7,000 people have been injured by the force of floodwaters that rushed down a normally dry river valley, said Osama Ali, spokesman for the Tripoli-based emergency services, which has had a team in Derna since Monday.
'Death toll is huge'
"The death toll is huge and might reach thousands," Tamer Ramadan of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) told reporters in Geneva via video link from Tunis.
"We confirm from our independent sources of information that the number of missing people is hitting 10,000 persons so far."
Storm Daniel swept in over the Mediterranean on Sunday, swamping roads and destroying buildings in settlements along Libya's coast.
On Monday, local authorities said at least 2,000 people were killed and thousands more were missing due to floods in the city of Derna. The storm also hit Benghazi and the hill district of Jabal al-Akhdar.
Ahmed Mismari, the spokesperson for the Libyan National Army (LNA) that controls eastern Libya, told a news conference that dams above Derna, home to some 100,000 people, had collapsed, "sweeping whole neighbourhoods with their residents into the sea".
Difficult to reach areas
Derna, 250 kilometres east of Benghazi, is ringed by hills and bisected by what is normally a dry riverbed in summer, but which has turned into a raging torrent of mud-brown water that also swept away several major bridges.
Joined by RFI on Monday evening, Tawfik al Shukri, spokesperson for the Libyan Red Crescent, gave an initial assessment of the situation in Derna.
"Our teams were present everywhere on the ground since the first hours of the disaster, but the situation in Derna remains the most atrocious," he said, adding three members of the Red Crescent were lost while trying to rescue families submerged by water.
According to government sources, he said more than 2,030 bodies had been found and more than 9,800 reports of missing people.
"The situation requires the combined efforts of everyone: the two Libyan governments and local and international NGOs to help those affected and suffering following this catastrophic event," he explained.
Divided country
Making the coordination of rescue efforts all the more difficult is the fact that Libya has been divided between rival governments since the fall of former dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
Libya's Government of National Unity, based in the capital Tripoli, is led by Prime Minister Abduelhamid Dbeibah.
Dbeibah announced three days of national mourning following the storm and emphasised "the unity of all Libyans". He directed all state agencies to "immediately deal" with the damage and floods in eastern cities.
While the internationally recognised government in Tripoli does not control eastern areas, it has dispatched aid to Derna, with at least one relief flight leaving from the western city of Misrata on Tuesday, a Reuters journalist on the plane said.
The emergency medical supply plane, headed to Benghazi, is carrying 14 tons of supplies, medications, equipment, body bags and 87 medical and paramedical personnel, Dbeibah said on social media.
Libya's National Oil Corporation, which has its main fields and terminals in eastern Libya, declared "a state of maximum alert" and suspended flights between production sites where it said activity was drastically reduced.
Support, solidarity
The United Nations in Libya said it was following the storm closely and would "provide urgent relief assistance in support of response efforts at local and national levels".
It expressed its condolences over the deaths and said it was "ready to support efforts by local authorities and municipalities to respond to this emergency and provide urgent humanitarian assistance".
Several countries have offered to send aid, among them Turkey, Algeria, Egypt, France, Italy, Qatar, Tunisia and the United States.
With a message on social media, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed "solidarity with the Libyan people who are suffering terrible floods. France offers its condolences to the victim' families and is mobilising resources to provide emergency aid".
Experts have described storm Daniel – which killed at least 27 people when it struck parts of Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria in recent days – as "extreme in terms of the amount of water falling in a space of 24 hours".
(with newswires)
