12- September-2023- News Agencies
The interior ministry of Libya’s eastern-based administration says more than 5,000 people have died in devastating floods caused by Storm Daniel.
Aid agencies have so far provided lower estimates but warn the number of victims could sharply rise as thousands remain unaccounted.
The flooding has wiped out a quarter of the coastal city of Derna, where two dams burst following heavy rains.
The United Nations says emergency teams are being mobilised to help on the ground in the politically divided country
After more than a decade of turmoil, Libya remains split between two rival administrations: one in the west and the other in the east, each backed by different militias and foreign governments.
Libyan authorities ‘complacent’ in slow response to Storm Daniel, says analyst
According to Anas El Gomati, founder and director of Sadeq Institute, a Tripoli-based public policy think-tank, although the presence of two rival governments in Libya has complicated authorities’ efforts to respond to the crisis, they had plenty of time to coordinate a better response.
“We had days and hours ahead of this to be able to prepare,” said El Gomati, referring to the storm’s impact on Turkey and Greece days ahead of reaching Libya.
“It is the local governments and the Libyan National Army – Khalifa Haftar’s forces – that are responsible for what unravelled,” he said.
“Unlike the situation in Morocco, where tectonic plates moved and they had seconds to prepare, in Libya, as the dams began to swell and fill slowly, they had days and hours to plan an evacuation. They [the authorities] didn’t raise the alarm and instead did the opposite – told people] to stay indoors.”
“This is not the evil of mother nature, it is the evil of men, the incompetence and complacency,” he added.
Libya is divided between east and west and public services have crumbled in more than a decade of power struggles.
After pummelling Greece last week, Storm Daniel swept in over the Mediterranean on Sunday, swamping roads and destroying buildings in Derna, and hitting other settlements along the coast, including Libya’s second-biggest city of Benghazi
Hundreds of bodies uncovered as eastern Libya devastated by floods
Emergency workers have uncovered hundreds of bodies in the wreckage of Libya’s eastern city of Derna amid fears that the toll could spike.
Outside help was only just starting to reach the coastal city more than 36 hours after the disaster struck. The floods damaged or destroyed many access roads to Derna.
More than 1,000 corpses were counted, including the at least 700 that have been buried so far, the health minister for eastern Libya said. Derna’s ambulance authority has put the current death toll at 2,300.
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