NAfter the devastating floods in Libya, the number of confirmed deaths in the coastal city of Darna has risen to 11,300, according to the UN. Around 10,100 more people from the destroyed city in the east of the crisis country are still missing, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA) said on Saturday, citing information from the Libyan Red Crescent.
It was also said that it was to be expected that the number of victims would continue to rise as a result of the tireless search for possible survivors. Storm “Daniel” caused severe flooding in eastern Libya on Sunday last week. The city of Darna, with a population of 100,000, was particularly hard hit because two river dams there burst. Outside Darna, the UN counted another 170 deaths.
There have been contradictory reports for days about the number of deaths, including in the hard-hit city of Darna. They fluctuated between around 5,000 and up to 11,000. The government in the east of the civil war country put the number of officially registered deaths at 3,252. On Friday, their health minister Othman Abdel Jalil declared only his own figures to be valid from now on. The number of 3,166 deaths is likely to rise. A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Libya said it was still too early to provide reliable death figures.
Concern about possible health effects for the population grew, especially in Darna. By Saturday, around 150 cases of diarrhea had been reported. The head of the Center for Disease Control, Haidar al-Sajih, cited contaminated drinking water as the reason. The center has declared an emergency for at least a year in the flood areas. In other countries, diseases and epidemics sometimes broke out even nine months after a disaster.
The center proposed dividing the city of Darna, with about 100,000 residents, into three zones: a particularly “affected zone” with only limited access. There is also a “vulnerable zone” that women and children should not enter, but which the (male) head of a family can inhabit. And finally, a “safe zone” that is not affected by the floods and where displaced people can stay. Under no circumstances should the drinking water be used because it has mixed with wastewater. “The situation will not be over in a week or a month,” al-Sajih said.
Meanwhile, 29 tons of medical supplies arrived in Benghazi on Saturday. This means that almost 250,000 people can receive medical care, as WHO announced. These include vital medicines for chronic and communicable diseases as well as material for wound care and emergency operations as well as body bags. The material goes to clinics and practices in the region.
Depending on the route, it is between 300 and 400 kilometers from Benghazi to the partially destroyed city of Darna. According to the Red Cross and Red Crescent Federation (IFRC), there is only one motorable access road following the severe flooding. The new supplies were flown to Benghazi from a WHO warehouse in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A first delivery of a similar size had already been brought to the disaster area from WHO camps in Libya.
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