There are fears that thousands of people may have died after two dams collapsed in the city of Derna on September 10, leading to the collapse of residential buildings that were lining the usually dry riverbed, while people were sleeping.
Many bodies were swept towards the Mediterranean Sea.
As the sun rose on Sunday, the scenes of devastation subsided as piles of rubble were removed and placed on the sides of empty roads, and quantities of tangled metal, some of them parts of car wrecks, were removed.
Hamad Awad slept on an empty street with a bottle of water and bed sheets next to him.
Awad said, “I am staying in our area trying to clean it up and verify the missing people… Praise be to God, who has given us patience.”
Widespread destruction in Derna
Entire areas of Derna, with an estimated population of at least 120,000 people, were swept away or covered in mud. Official media reported that at least 891 buildings were destroyed in the city, while the mayor said that 20,000 people may have died as a result of this disaster.
Another resident said people were confused about what to do next.
Wasfi, a resident who preferred to give only his first name, said, “We still don’t know anything (…) We hear rumours. Some are trying to reassure us and others are saying either leave the city or stay here. We have no water and no resources.”
A report issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the Libyan authorities discovered that at least 55 children were poisoned due to drinking contaminated water in Derna, where the displaced live in temporary shelters, schools or are crowded into the homes of their relatives or friends.
The report added that floodwaters transported landmines and other munitions left behind by the conflict over the past years, posing an additional danger to thousands of displaced people on the move.
Inconsistencies in the number of deaths
The report said that at least 11,300 people were killed and more than 10,000 were still missing in Derna after Storm Daniel, which came across the Mediterranean, swept through the city and other coastal residential areas.
The report attributed these numbers to the Libyan Red Crescent. But a spokesman for the Red Crescent said that they had not published such a number of victims.
Dr. Osama Al-Fakhri, Director of the Office of the Minister of Health in the Eastern Government, said, “The number of deaths so far is 3,252, all of whom have been buried.”
He added that 86 bodies were recovered from under the rubble and that relief operations are continuing.
Al-Fakhri said, “There is no specific number regarding the missing because there are entire families who died and no one came to report them, in addition to the fact that there is duplication of registration in different hospitals.”
Other Libyan officials previously spoke of the killing of more than five thousand people.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that more than 40,000 people have been displaced, warning that this number is likely to be much higher due to the difficulty of accessing the most affected areas such as Derna, where at least 30,000 people have been displaced.
International relief organizations sent emergency aid by air, and some countries also provided supplies and other assistance, but the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said more was needed.
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