On the 13th local time, Wakkil, deputy minister of health of the Libyan National Unity Government, announced that the number of victims of floods in eastern Libya has exceeded 6,000. Among them, the city of Derna was the most severely affected, and the number of victims is expected to continue to rise.
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In addition to the data released by the Libyan National Unity Government, the spokesman of the Ministry of the Interior appointed by the Libyan National Congress said on the 13th that more than 5,300 people have been killed in the city of Derna in eastern Libya. Abdullah Blahak, spokesman for the Libyan National Assembly, said in an interview with the media on the same day that nearly 7,000 people had died in the floods in Derna.
Libyan "National Army" spokesman Ahmed Mismari told Russian Sputnik News Agency on the same day that the number of people killed in floods in eastern Libya may have exceeded 10,000.
In addition, representatives of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies revealed earlier that more than 9,000 people in the city of Derna are unaccounted for. According to the International Organization for Migration, the floods displaced 35,000 people in the city of Derna.
Difficult roads in eastern Libya have been flooded, making relief operations difficult. At present, international rescue teams have arrived in the city of Derna to begin the search for missing persons. Rescue teams have yet to reach the similarly affected area of Sousse, where a humanitarian catastrophe could occur.
While the affected residents of Derna are helping themselves, they are also appealing to the international community to help.
Mohammed Salem: The whole city was destroyed, the bodies of the victims were in the ruins or in the sea, and some of the victims were buried together in mass graves because the cemeteries were also full. I ask the international community to come and help us, come and help us, you can see how bad our situation is.
Abdelmullah Suker: We need international agencies like the United Nations, the World Health Organization to assist our cities. We must acknowledge that our government has done what it can, even ordinary people have done their best, but the scale of this disaster is too great.
Since the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime in 2011, Libya has been plunged into turmoil. At this stage, the Government of National Unity controls most of the west, including Tripoli; The National Assembly, allied with the "National Army", controlled mainly the eastern and central regions. The two sides declared a ceasefire in 2020, but did not agree on a political process.