At least 10,000 missing after devastating floods in Libya, says Red Cross

GOOBJOOG NEWS | TRIPOLI: At least 10,000 people are missing following the devastating flooding in Libya, Red Cross reported Tuesday.

Two dams burst over the weekend after storm Daniel hit Eastern Libya, causing unprecedented flooding at the port city of Derna.

Tamer Ramadan, the Libya envoy for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, gave the figure at a UN briefing in Geneva, describing the death toll as “huge”.

The health minister in the administration that controls the east of Libya said more than 3,000 people had been confirmed dead.

“The number of missing people is in the thousands, and the number of dead is expected to reach 10, 000,” Othman Abdel Jalil told Al-Massar TV channel.

Entire neighbourhoods have been washed away in Derna and more than 700 bodies have piled up in the cemetery waiting to be identified, and local health officials said as many as 5,000 people were missing.

“The situation in the city of Derna is becoming more tragic, and there are no final statistics on the number of victims,” Jalil said. “Many neighbourhoods were inaccessible.”

Hichem Chkiouat, the minister of civil aviation, said the situation in Derna was disastrous.

“Bodies are lying everywhere – in the sea, in the valleys, under the buildings,” Chkiouat told Reuters by phone after a visit to the city. “I am not exaggerating when I say that 25% of the city has disappeared. Many, many buildings have collapsed.”

The final toll would be “really, really big”, he added.

• Additional reporting by agencies