A week after a wall of water rushed through the Libyan coastal city of Derna, sweeping thousands to their deaths, the focus turned yesterday to caring for survivors of the disaster.
Estimates of the number of lives lost vary widely.
The most recent official death toll, from the minister of health of the eastern-based administration, Othman Abdeljalil, is 3,166.
Photo: AFP
However, according to a UN report released yesterday, the toll from Derna alone has risen to 11,300.
Citing the Libyan Red Crescent, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) added that another 10,100 people were still missing in the devastated city.
“These figures are expected to rise in the coming days and weeks as search-and-rescue crews work tirelessly to find survivors,” the OCHA report said.
Aid started arriving in the North African country as the world has mobilized to help emergency services cope with the aftermath of the deadly flood.
At least 40,000 people have been displaced across northeastern Libya, the International Organization for Migration said, which cautioned the actual number is likely higher given the difficulty accessing the worst-affected areas.
Two dams upstream from Derna burst a week ago under the pressure of torrential rains from the hurricane-strength Storm Daniel.
The dams were built to protect the port city of 100,000 people after it had been hit by significant flooding in the mid-20th century.
The banks of a dried riverbed or wadi running through the city center had been heavily built on, and last week’s torrent swept everything before it as it rushed towards the Mediterranean Sea.
A week on, bodies are still being found.
A rescue crew from Maltese Civil Protection Department discovered a beach strewn with dead bodies on Friday, the Times of Malta newspaper reported.
International aid is arriving from the UN, Europe and the Middle East, offering some relief to the thousands of survivors.
The aid includes essential medicines and emergency surgical supplies, as well as body bags to allow corpses to be moved.
Tents, blankets, carpets, hygiene kits and food have been flown in, along with heavy machinery to help clear the debris.
The devastating flooding brought by Storm Daniel was exacerbated by poor infrastructure in Libya, which was plunged into turmoil after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
Questions are being asked as to why the disaster was not prevented, when cracks in the dams have been known about since 1998.
Libyan prosecutor-general al-Seddik al-Sour has announced an investigation into the circumstances leading to the collapse.
Like much of Libya’s crumbling infrastructure, the two dams that had been built to hold back water from Derna fell into disrepair during years of neglect, conflict and division in the chaos-ridden country.
Libya is currently ruled by two rival administrations that have battled for power since Qaddafi’s ousting.
With tens of thousands of people displaced, aid organizations have warned of the risks posed by leftover landmines and other unexploded ordnance, some of which the UN said has been shifted by floodwaters into areas previously declared clear. The risks of water-borne diseases such as cholera are also high, some aid groups said.
Outside Derna, the flooding took an additional 170 lives, the UN’s report said.
The Libyan National Center for Disease Control reported that at least 55 children were poisoned as a result of drinking polluted water in Derna.
To assist the hundreds of thousands of people in need, the UN has launched an appeal for more than US$71 million.
“We don’t know the extent of the problem,” UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Friday, as he called for coordination between Libya’s two rival administrations — the UN-backed, internationally recognized government in Tripoli, and one based in the disaster-hit east.”
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