Death toll from devastating floods in Libya rises to 6,000 people

Addis Ababa, September 13, 2023 (FBC) – Death toll from devastating floods in Libya’s eastern city of Derna has risen to an estimated 6,000 people, according to local officials.

The figure is expected to rise as recovery operations continue in the coastal city that was pummeled by Storm Daniel.

Derna has suffered massive destruction. The city is home to about 100,000 people, where multistorey buildings on the river banks collapsed and houses and cars vanished in the raging floodwaters.

Derna is ringed by hills and bisected by what is normally a dry riverbed in summer, but which has turned into a raging torrent of mud-brown water that also swept away several major bridges.

The destruction came to Derna and other parts of eastern Libya on Sunday night. As the storm pounded the coast, Derna residents said they heard loud explosions and realised that dams outside the city had collapsed.

Derna’s death toll “will increase and double for sure”, Islamic Relief’s Salah Aboulgasem told Al Jazeera.

At least 30 percent of the city has “completely disappeared”, Aboulgasem said.

“The best way of describing it is like a mini-tsunami completely washing away everything in its path,” he added.

According to him, families of “multiple generations” had lived in the affected areas. “Complete families have been wiped out … Some of these buildings were completely taken away by the water.”

Aboulgasem said he expects the death toll “to double, if not quadruple”. “People are saying in Arabic it’s like doomsday. That’s the best way to describe it,” he said.