Quarter of Libyan city wiped out in deadly flooding

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The number of dead in storm floods in Libya could reach thousands, an official from the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Tuesday, as Libyan officials said around a quarter of the eastern city of Derna was wiped away when a dam burst.

Issued on: 12/09/2023 – 12:06Modified: 12/09/2023 – 12:07

3 min

“The death toll is huge and might reach thousands,” Tamer Ramadan, head of the IFRC delegation in Libya, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Tunisia.

Officials in the administration that runs the eastern part of the divided country said on Monday that at least 2,000 people had been killed by the floods, though it was not immediately clear what that estimate was based on.

In Derna alone, more than 1,000 bodies have been recovered so far, according to a minister in the country’s eastern administration.

Vehicles piled up along the side of a coastal road in the eastern city of Derna, about 290 kilometres from Benghazi, in the wake of the Mediterranean storm “Daniel”. © Press office of Libya’s interim prime minister via AFP

“I returned from Derna. It is very disastrous. Bodies are lying everywhere – in the sea, in the valleys, under the buildings,” Hichem Chkiouat, minister of civil aviation and member of the emergency committee, told Reuters by phone.

“I am not exaggerating when I say that 25% of the city has disappeared. Many, many buildings have collapsed,” he added.