International aid effort stepped up as Libya searches for flood victims

A dozen countries including France have stepped up their aid campaigns to help Libya, where significant flooding caused by storm Daniel has left thousands dead and injured and many more missing.

People look at the damage caused by freak floods in Derna, eastern Libya, on September 11, 2023. AFP - -

The city of Derna, in the country's east was hardest hit, with tsunami-like floods that ripped away buildings and vehicles.

Many were swept out into the sea, with bodies later washing up on beaches littered with debris and car wrecks.

The confirmed death toll reached 3,840 by Wednesday afternoon, according to Lieutenant Tarek al-Kharraz, spokesman for the eastern-based government's interior ministry.

The figure includes 3,190 victims who have already been buried and at least 400 foreigners, mostly from Sudan and Egypt, Kharraz told French news agency AFP, adding 2,400 people were still missing.

Death toll still climbing

However, some media reports have quoted officials giving higher tolls.

The mayor of Derna estimated between 18,000 and 20,000 people have died in the floods.

Abdulmenam Al-Ghaithi told al-Arabiya TV these figures were based on the number of districts completely destroyed when two dams burst at the weekend.

People look for survivors in Derna, Libya, Wednesday, Sept.13, 2023. Search teams are combing streets, wrecked buildings, and even the sea to look for bodies. AP - Yousef Murad

Tamer Ramadan of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (ICRC) said earlier that the organisation had independent sources saying that "the number of missing people is hitting 10,000 persons so far".

International aid arrives

France announced it was sending around 53 rescuers and tonnes of health supplies to Libya along with a field hospital that would up and running by Friday.

Egypt's president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered "the establishment of shelter camps" for survivors, according to state media.

Turkey, was sending additional assistance by ship, including two field hospitals.

A naval vessel from Italy was also expected to be off Libya Thursday to provide logistical and medical support.

Algeria, Qatar and Tunisia have also pledged to help, while the United Arab Emirates sent two planes carrying 150 tonnes of aid. Another 40 tonnes of supplies took off Wednesday on a Kuwaiti flight.

A boy pulls a suitcase past debris in a flash-flood damaged area in Derna, eastern Libya, on September 11, 2023. © AFP

Palestinian media reported a rescue mission had left from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and Jordan sent a military plane loaded with food parcels, tents, blankets and mattresses.

The United Nations has pledged $10 million to support Libya's survivors, including at least 30,000 people it said had been left homeless in Derna, almost a third of the eastern Libyan city's pre-disaster population.

Britain announced it was sending an "initial package" of aid worth up to £1 million ($1.25 million). London said it was working with "trusted partners on the ground" to identify the most urgent basic needs, including shelter, health care and sanitation.  

The European Union said assistance from Germany, Romania and Finland had been sent.  

Structural problems

Libya is still recovering from the war and chaos that followed the NATO-backed uprising which toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

The country has been left divided between two rival governments – the UN-brokered, internationally recognised administration based in Tripoli, and a separate administration in the disaster-hit east.

Climate experts have linked Libya's disaster to a combination of the impacts of a heating planet and the country's years of political chaos and underinvestment in infrastructure.

The United Nations said Thursday that most of the thousands of deaths could have been averted if early warning and emergency management systems had functioned properly.

With better functioning coordination in the crisis-wracked country, "they could have issued the warnings and the emergency management forces would have been able to carry out the evacuation of the people, and we could have avoided most of the human casualties," Petteri Taalas, head of the UN's World Meteorological Organization, told reporters.

Erik Tollefsen, head of the weapon contamination unit at the International Committee of the Red Cross, also warned of risks posed by landmines planted during the war and now shifted by flood waters into areas previously free of weapon contamination.

(with newswires)