The number of people missing in the floods in Libya is around 10,000 people, while the death toll has already exceeded 2,000, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Monday.
“We don’t have a final balance” on the number of deaths, but “the number of missing people is around 10,000,” IFRC head Tamer Ramadan said at a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
“The humanitarian needs far exceed the capabilities of the Libyan Red Crescent and even the capabilities of the government,” said Ramadan, speaking live from Tunis.
“That is why the government has launched an appeal for international assistance and we will also launch an emergency appeal soon,” he said.
Storm Daniel hit eastern Libya on Sunday afternoon, namely the coastal cities of Jabal al-Akhdar (northeast) and Benghazi, where a curfew was imposed and schools were closed.
Storm Daniel, described by experts as an “extreme phenomenon in terms of the amount of water it rained”, also caused at least 27 deaths in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria.
Eastern Libya is home to large oil fields and terminals. The National Oil Company (NOC) has declared a “state of maximum alert” and suspended flights between production sites where activity has been drastically reduced.
In Benghazi, the country’s fourth-largest city of nearly 120,000 people is currently isolated by land after the destruction of roads and bridges due to heavy rains, and is also without electricity and communications.
Two of the dams collapsed on Monday, releasing a total of 33 million cubic meters of water and leaving entire residential areas behind. That is why the local authorities set up a field hospital.
According to the Libyan National Meteorological Center, rainfall exceeded 400 milliliters per hour, a figure that had not been recorded for 40 years.
Source: DN
