The number of people missing due to floods in Libya is about 10,000, and the death toll has already exceeded 5,200, the interior ministry of the eastern Libyan administration reported on Tuesday.
“We don’t have a final balance” on the death toll, but “the number of missing is about 10,000,” IFRC chief Tamer Ramadan said at a press conference held in Geneva, Switzerland.
“The humanitarian needs far exceed the capacity of the Libyan Red Crescent and even the capacity of the government,” explained Ramadan, speaking live from Tunisia.
“The government has therefore launched an appeal for international assistance and we will also launch an emergency appeal soon,” he said.
Libyan Health Minister said 700 dead have already been buried in the city of Derna
The eastern Libyan government’s health minister said on Tuesday that 700 people had already been buried in the city of Derna following the floods, but acknowledged that number was expected to rise further.
Osman Abduljalil, who visited Derna on Tuesday, told local television that the city’s hospitals were still full of bodies.
Storm Daniel hit eastern Libya on Sunday afternoon, hitting the coastal cities of Jabal al-Akhdar (northeast) and Benghazi, where a curfew was declared and schools were closed.
Described by experts as an “extreme event in terms of the amount of water that fell”, Storm Daniel was also responsible for the deaths of at least 27 people in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria.
Eastern Libya is home to large oil fields and terminals. The National Oil Company (NOC) declared a “state of maximum alert” and “suspended flights” between production sites where activity has dropped sharply.
Benghazi, the country’s fourth-largest city with nearly 120,000 residents, is now isolated by land after heavy rains destroyed its roads and bridges, and is without electricity or communications.
Two of its dams collapsed on Monday, releasing a total of 33 million cubic meters of water and leaving entire residential areas behind, prompting local authorities to set up a field hospital.
Rainfall exceeded 400 milliliters per hour, a level not recorded for four decades, according to the Libyan National Meteorological Center.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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