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Leader of Libya’s eastern administration, Khalifa Haftar said that thousands are feared dead or missing after huge flash floods devastated eastern regions. The devastation with a surge of muddy river water ripped away entire neighborhoods in the coastal city of Derna.
Nearly 3,000 people have been confirmed dead and up to 10,000 people are missing with twice as many displaced according to Libya’s Red Crescent spokesman Taqfiq Shukri. Massive destructions have been captured in images published online from the port city of Derna. The city is home to 100,000 people, where multi-story buildings on the river banks collapsed and houses vanished in the raging waters after two upstream dams broke.
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The disaster in the country was caused by torrential rains from Storm Daniel, which made landfall in Libya last Sunday. Torrential rains were also there in other Mediterranean countries, especially Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey.
The coastal city of Derna, 250 kms west of Benghazi, is surrounded by hills and bisected by what is normally a dry riverbed in summer. Major bridges were swept away in the torrential rains. Local reports indicate that the death toll could be more than expected and the rehabilitation work involved would be huge. Some unconfirmed reports state that the number of missing persons is staggering.
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https://trendsnafrica.com/libya-to-resume-air-services-to-italy/
Libya, an oil-rich country in northern Africa, is still recovering from the years of war and chaos that followed the 2011 NATO-backed popular uprising which toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi. The country is now divided between two rival governments — the UN-brokered, internationally recognized administration based in the capital Tripoli in the west, and a separate administration in the eastern region impacted by the flood disaster.
Rescue teams from Turkey have arrived in eastern Libya, according to authorities, and the UN and several countries offered to send aid, among them include the United States, Italy, France, Qatar, Egypt, and Tunisia.
