6,000 dead, thousands missing in East Libya floods

COLOMBO (News 1st); The death toll from devastating floods in Libya’s eastern city of Derna has risen to an estimated 6,000 people, according to local officials..

Libya’s eastern administration said 5,300 bodies have been counted in Derna alone so far, with that number expected to rise and even double.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Libya says at least 30,000 people have been displaced in Derna.

In a post on X, the IOM said 6,085 other people have been displaced in other storm-hit areas, including Benghazi, with the number of deaths still unverified.

Massive destruction has shattered the Libyan coastal city of Derna, home to about 100,000 people, where multistorey buildings on the river banks collapsed and houses and cars vanished in the raging floodwaters.

The floods were caused by torrential rains from Storm Daniel, which made landfall in Libya on Sunday after earlier lashing Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey.

Derna, 250km (150 miles) east of Benghazi, 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.

International offers of assistance

* Rescue teams sent by Turkey and the United Arab Emirates have arrived in eastern Libya

* Egypt’s armed forces chief of staff, a political and military ally of the commander of the Tobruk-based Libyan National Army, Khalifa Haftar, flew to Benghazi on Tuesday on board a plane loaded with relief supplies and personnel

* France has promised to send a field hospital to Libya within 48 hours to support the flood victims.

* Algeria’s Foreign Ministry said it has sent eight aircraft loaded with foodstuffs, medical supplies, clothes, and tents.

Egypt, France, Iran, Italy, Qatar, Tunisia, the United Nations, and the United States have all pledged that they are ready to help.