Ten days after the storm, the toll is gradually solidifying and gives a glimpse of the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe. “According to the latest IOM estimates, 43,059 people have been displaced by floods in northeastern Libya,” the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in its latest report on the situation in the east. of Libya after the devastating passage of storm Daniel on the night of September 10 to 11, which left more than 3,300 dead, according to the authorities.
According to the organization, “the lack of water supply would have pushed many displaced people to leave Derna for other cities in the East and West.” The Libyan authorities had asked the city’s population to no longer use water from the local distribution network, contaminated according to them by floodwaters. The UN announced earlier this week that its agencies, notably the World Health Organization (WHO), are working to “prevent the spread of disease and avoid a second devastating crisis in the region”, warning of a risk coming from “contaminated water and lack of hygiene”.
The urgent needs of displaced people include “food, drinking water, mental health and psychosocial support,” IOM added. Furthermore, mobile telephone and internet networks were restored during the night from Wednesday to Thursday in Derna after a 24-hour outage, the Libyan authorities announced.
Communications were cut off on Tuesday and journalists were asked to leave the stricken town the day after a demonstration by residents of Derna demanding accountability from the authorities in the east of the country, who they believe were responsible for the disaster. The authorities spoke of a “cut in optical fibers”, but according to analysts and Internet users, this was a deliberate cut intended to impose a “blackout” after extensive media coverage of the demonstration the day before.