Libyan authorities sealed off a flood-ravaged town on Friday to allow search teams to scour mud and hollowed-out buildings to search for 10,000 people missing and feared dead, as the official death toll from floods passed 11,000. Has occurred. Officials have warned that water-borne disease and explosives could kill yet more people.
Heavy rains caused by Mediterranean storm Daniel early Monday caused two dams to collapse, sending a wall of water several meters high into the valley running through the city of Derna.
Unusual flooding and Libya’s political chaos contributed to the heavy damage. The oil-rich state has been divided since 2014 between rival governments in the east and west, backed by various militia forces and international protectorates.
The disaster has brought rare unity, as government agencies in different parts of Libya rushed to help affected areas. But relief efforts have slowed after several bridges connecting the city were destroyed.
Piles of twisted metal and laden cars litter the streets of Derna, which are caked in brown mud. Othman Abduljalil, eastern Libya’s health minister, said teams had buried bodies in mass graves outside the city and in nearby towns.
But authorities worry that thousands of bodies may still be hidden in the mud – or floating in the sea, where divers were sent to search.
Flood survivor Adel Ayad recalled that the water rose to the fourth floor of his building.
“The waves swept people off the roofs of buildings, and we could see people being swept away in the floodwaters,” he said, including his neighbors.
Health officials warned that standing water opens the door to disease – but said there was no need to hastily bury bodies or place them in mass graves, as the bodies in such cases usually pose no threat.
“You have a lot of water stored. “This doesn’t mean that the bodies pose a threat, but it does mean that the water itself is contaminated with everything,” World Health Organization spokeswoman Dr. Margaret Harris told reporters in Geneva. “So you really have to focus on making sure people have safe water.”
Imene Trabelsi, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, warned that another danger lurked in the mud: landmines and other explosive remains left behind by the country’s long conflict.
Libya contains leftover explosives from the Second World War, but most of the remaining explosives are from the civil conflict that began in 2011. Between 2011 and 2021, approximately 3,457 people were killed and injured by landmines and explosive weapons remnants in Libya. According to the International Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor.
Even before the floods, Trabelsi said “efforts and capacity” to locate and decontaminate areas were limited. Explosive devices may have been swept into “new, unknown areas” after the floods, he said.
Salam al-Fergani, director general of ambulance and emergency services in eastern Libya, announced late Thursday that to allow emergency workers to do their work, residents were being evacuated from Derna and only search and rescue teams would be allowed to enter. Will be allowed.
As of Thursday, the Libyan Red Crescent said 11,300 people had been killed in Derna and another 10,100 were reported missing. The storm also killed about 170 people in other parts of the country.
Officials have said Libya’s political chaos has contributed to the loss of life.
“Government institutions are not functioning as they should,” Lori Hiber Girardet, head of the risk knowledge branch of the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Derna resident Khalifa Othman, who is desperately searching for missing loved ones, said he blamed the authorities for the magnitude of the disaster.
“My son, a doctor who graduated this year, my nephew and his entire family, my grandson, my daughter and her husband are all missing, and we are still searching for them,” he said. “Everyone is upset and angry – there was no preparation.”