Authorities in eastern Libya are organizing an international conference on October 10 in the city of Derna, which was devastated by deadly floods on the night of the 10th/11th of this month.
“The government invites the international community to participate in the conference it intends to organize on October 10 in Derna to present modern and rapid reconstruction projects for the city,” the eastern Libyan administration said in a statement signed by its leader Osama Hamad. .
The government added that it convened the international conference “in response to requests from residents of the hard-hit city of Derna and other cities.” [no leste] it suffered damage” after the passage of Storm Daniel on Sept. 10, according to the statement.
Libya was divided into two after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and is governed by two competing administrations: one in Tripoli (in the west), recognized by the UN and led by Abdelhamid Dbeibah, and another in the east, represented by parliament and associated administrations. in the camp of the powerful Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
The storm hit Derna, a city of 100,000 people on the Mediterranean Sea, with full force, causing two upstream dams to burst and causing tsunami-like flooding.
According to the latest official preliminary balance released on Tuesday by eastern health minister Osman Abdeljalil, floods were responsible for 3,351 deaths, a figure that could be revised upward.
On the 18th of this month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated the total number of people affected by the floods that devastated eastern Libya at more than 880,000, with the number of people displaced by the cyclone estimated at around 40,000. .
OCHA, which said it was reviewing the situation with Libyan authorities in the east of the country, said about 300,000 people were already in need of humanitarian assistance before the floods and storm, a total that had nearly tripled.
In this sense, OCHA regarded the events as “catastrophic” and indicated that it had already allocated $10 million (€9.37 million) in emergency funds to speed up the first response, an amount which it however considered “insufficient”, given that 884,000 people are employed in the five Libyan provinces.
The UN agency has requested $71.4 million (about 67 million euros) to help 250,000 affected people over the next three months.
The exact scale of the tragedy is still unknown, but an OCHA report points to the possible loss of 30% of Derna, the city hardest hit by the floods, and some 2,200 damaged buildings.
Additionally, major roads remain blocked and electricity and other essential supplies continue to be cut off.
The Derna region has the largest number of displaced people, about 40,000, but the International Organization for Migration (IOM) also found that some of those displaced have moved on. Benghazi, further west, is home to about 2,500 displaced people.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) distributed blankets, plastic sheets and kitchen utensils to 6,200 displaced families in Derna and Benghazi.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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