11,300 dead and 10,100 missing
“The city smells of death”: the number of flood victims in Darna, Libya is increasing significantly
Rescue workers recover a body in Darna. Libya remains in a state of emergency following the terrible floods
© IHH / AP / DPA
A week after the terrible floods in Libya, the situation in the country is still catastrophic. The emergency services are tirelessly searching for thousands of missing people. The number of deaths has continued to rise.
More than 21,000 dead and missing, huge destruction and serious problems with the drinking water supply: one week after the flooding of Darna in Libya, the situation in the coastal town remains catastrophic. The UN significantly increased its preliminary information on the number of victims on Sunday night: According to this, at least 11,300 people died in the city of 100,000 people and around 10,100 people are still missing.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (Ocha) cited information from the Libyan Red Crescent. It is expected that the number of victims will continue to rise as a result of the tireless search for possible survivors, it was said. In Darna, bodies are still being washed up every day or decomposing under the rubble, the Arabic television station Al-Jazeera reported. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently spoke of around 4,000 recovered and identified fatalities and 9,000 missing people.
Emergency services discover hundreds of bodies in a bay
Maltese rescue workers discovered hundreds of bodies in a bay, according to the Times of Malta newspaper. “There were probably 400, but it’s hard to say,” operations chief Natalino Bezzina told the newspaper, without mentioning the exact location. The bay is difficult to access due to strong winds. However, his team was able to help rescue a few dozen victims. A Libyan emergency team on a rubber dinghy reported in a video shared on online networks that they had discovered “perhaps 600 bodies” in the sea in the Om-al-Briket region, about 20 kilometers east of Darna. It is unclear whether this was the same location that the Maltese emergency services were talking about.
Storm “Daniel” caused severe flooding in eastern Libya on Sunday last week. Darna was hit particularly hard because two river dams there burst. The force of the water masses was comparable to that of a tsunami. Numerous people were swept into the Mediterranean during the floods. Part of the city was buried under masses of mud.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), at least 40,000 people in northeast Libya are on the run because of the floods. With thousands of displaced people now on the move, Ocha said the risk of being injured or killed by landmines and explosive ordnance left over from years of conflict in the country is also increasing. The floods had, among other things, carried landmines into other areas, it said, citing the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Floods
Mass water and mud, thousands upon thousands of dead – the images of the Libyan catastrophe
Ocha said the humanitarian situation in Darna remained “particularly dire.” There are serious problems with the drinking water supply and at least 55 children have been poisoned by contaminated drinking water. Health Minister Abdeljalil dismissed rumors of a possible evacuation of Darna. Only “certain areas” of the city would be “isolated” to facilitate rescue work, he explained. To protect against epidemics, water samples are taken and analyzed daily.
Growing concern about disease in Darna
The aid organization Islamic Relief said there was a risk of a “second humanitarian crisis” in Darna. There is a “growing threat of water-borne diseases” such as cholera. There is also a lack of food, shelter and medicine in Darna. “The city smells of death,” said Salah Abulgasem of Islamic Relief.
Meanwhile, the organization Doctors Without Borders moved teams to the east of the country to check the water and sanitation supplies there. With such a disaster, “we can really worry about waterborne illnesses,” said medical coordinator Manoelle Carton. She spoke of a “chaotic” situation in Darna. Given the large number of volunteers from Libya and abroad, “coordination of aid is urgently needed.”
Meanwhile, additional emergency services and relief supplies arrived at Benghazi airport for the flood victims in Darna and the surrounding area. From Benghazi to Darna it is between 300 and 400 kilometers, depending on the route. The floods have washed away access roads to Darna, and important bridges are buried under masses of mud. According to the Red Cross and Red Crescent Federation (IFRC), there is only one motorable access road left.
The US diplomat and former UN envoy to Libya, Stephanie Williams, called for the creation of a “joint national/international mechanism to oversee the (aid) funds” on the online service X (formerly Twitter). She referred to the “predatory” ruling class in Libya, which tends to steer aid operations “according to their interests” “under the pretext of sovereignty.”
Floods
Mass water and mud, thousands upon thousands of dead – the images of the Libyan catastrophe