EMERGENCY WORKERS SIFTING through the mud and rubble of the flood disaster in Libya are still hopeful of finding survivors, the Red Cross chief in the country has said.
“The hope is there, is always there, to find people alive,” said Tamer Ramadan, the head of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent’s rescue effort in the North African country.
His comments come after the Libyan Red Crescent asid the death toll in the coastal city of Derna has soared to 11,300.
Marie el-Drese, secretary-general of the aid group, told The Associated Press that a further 10,100 people are reported missing in the Mediterranean city.
Health authorities had previously put the death toll in Derna at 5,500.
The flooding swept away entire families on Sunday night and exposed vulnerabilities in the oil-rich country, which has been mired in conflict since a 2011 uprising that toppled long-ruling dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Daniel, an unusually strong Mediterranean storm, caused deadly flooding in towns across eastern Libya, but the worst-hit was Derna.
As the storm pounded the coast on Sunday night, residents said they heard loud explosions when two dams outside the city collapsed.
Floodwaters gushed down Wadi Derna, a valley that cuts through the city, crashing through buildings and washing people out to sea.
The UN aid chief has said the extent of the catastrophe is unclear as the country is divided between two rival authorities.
“I think the issue for us in Libya is of course coordinating with… the government and then the other authority in the east of the country,” Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator said, adding: “We don’t know the extent of the problem.”
Another UN official said that most casualties could have been avoided.
“If there would have been a normal operating meteorological service, they could have issued the warnings,” World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) head Petteri Taalas told reporters in Geneva.
“The emergency management authorities would have been able to carry out the evacuation.”
The WMO said earlier this week that the National Meteorological Centre had issued warnings 72 hours before the flooding, notifying all governmental authorities by email and through media.
Officials in eastern Libya warned the public about the coming storm and on Saturday had ordered residents to evacuate areas along the coast, fearing a surge from the sea.
But there was no warning about the dams collapsing.
The startling devastation reflected the storm’s intensity, but also Libya’s vulnerability.
Oil-rich Libya has been divided between rival governments for most of the past decade – one in the east, the other in the capital Tripoli – and one result has been widespread neglect of infrastructure.
The two dams that collapsed outside Derna were built in the 1970s.
A report by a state-run audit agency in 2021 said the dams had not been maintained despite the allocation of more than two million euros for that purpose in 2012 and 2013.
Libya’s Tripoli-based Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah acknowledged the maintenance issues in a Cabinet meeting on Thursday and called on the public prosecutor to open an urgent investigation into the dams’ collapse.
The disaster brought a rare moment of unity, as government agencies across the country rushed to help the affected areas.
While the Tobruk-based government of east Libya is leading relief efforts, the Tripoli-based western government allocated the equivalent of 412 million dollars (£332 million) for reconstruction in Derna and other eastern towns, and an armed group in Tripoli sent a convoy with humanitarian aid.
Derna has begun burying its dead, mostly in mass graves, said eastern Libya’s health minister Othman Abduljaleel earlier on Thursday.
More than 3,000 bodies were buried by Thursday morning, the minister said, while another 2,000 were still being processed.
He said most of the dead were buried in mass graves outside Derna, while others were transferred to nearby towns and cities.
Mr Abduljaleel said rescue teams were still searching wrecked buildings in the city centre, and divers were combing the sea off Derna.
Untold numbers could be buried under drifts of mud and debris, including overturned cars and chunks of concrete, that rise up to four metres (13ft) high.
Libya’s eastern based parliament, the House of Representatives, approved on Thursday an emergency budget of 10 billion Libyan dinars – roughly two billion dollars (£1.6 billion) – to address the flooding and help those affected.
Rescuers have struggled to bring in heavy equipment as the floods washed out or blocked roads leading to the area.
The Libyan Red Crescent said on Thursday that 11,300 people have been killed, and a further 10,100 are reported missing.
Local officials suggested that the death toll could be much higher than announced.
In comments to the Saudi-owned Al Arabia television station, Derna mayor Abdel-Moneim al-Ghaithi said the tally could climb to 20,000 given the number of neighbourhoods that were washed out.
The storm also killed around 170 people in other parts of eastern Libya, including the towns of Bayda, Susa, Um Razaz and Marj, the health minister said.
The dead in eastern Libya included at least 84 Egyptians, who were transferred to their home country on Wednesday.
More than 70 came from one village in the southern province of Beni Suef.
Libyan media also said dozens of Sudanese migrants were killed in the disaster.
The floods have also displaced at least 30,000 people in Derna, according to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration, and several thousand others were forced to leave their homes in other eastern towns, it said.
The floods damaged or destroyed many access roads to Derna, hampering the arrival of international rescue teams and humanitarian assistance.
Local authorities were able to clear some routes, and over the past 48 hours humanitarian convoys have been able to enter the city.
The UN humanitarian office issued an emergency appeal for 71.4 million dollars (£57.5 million) to respond to urgent needs of 250,000 Libyans most affected.
The humanitarian office, known as OCHA, estimated that approximately 884,000 people in five provinces live in areas directly affected by the rain and flooding.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday it has provided 6,000 body bags to local authorities, as well as medical, food and other supplies distributed to hard-hit communities.
International aid started to arrive earlier this week in Benghazi, 250 kilometres west of Derna.
Several countries have sent aid and rescue teams, including neighbouring Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia.
Italy dispatched a naval vessel on Thursday carrying humanitarian aid and two navy helicopters to be used for search and rescue operations.
President Joe Biden said the United States would send money to relief organisations and co-ordinate with Libyan authorities and the United Nations to provide additional support.
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