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The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Libya said on Wednesday that at least 30,000 individuals have been displaced in Derna, the town most affected by storm Daniel, adding that the number of deaths is currently unverified.
Rescuers have found more than 2,000 bodies as of Wednesday in the wreckage of a Libyan city where floodwaters broke dams and washed away neighborhoods. Officials fear the death toll could exceed 5,000 in the nation made vulnerable by years of turmoil and neglect.
Mediterranean storm Daniel caused deadly flooding in many eastern towns, but the worst-hit was Derna. As the storm pounded the coast Sunday night, Derna residents said they heard loud explosions when the dams outside the city collapsed. Floodwaters washed down Wadi Derna, a river running from the mountains through the city into the sea.
The floods damaged or destroyed many access roads to Derna. Of seven roads leading to the city, only two are accessible from its southern edge. Bridges over the river Derna that link the city’s eastern and western parts have also collapsed, according to the UN’s migration agency. The destruction has hampered the arrival of international rescue teams and humanitarian assistance to tens of thousands of people whose homes were destroyed or damaged.
“The city of Derna was submerged by waves 7 meters high that destroyed everything in their path,” Yann Fridez, head of the delegation of the International Committee for The Red Cross in Libya, told France24. “The human toll is enormous.”
Local emergency responders, including troops, government workers, volunteers and residents, continued digging through rubble looking for the dead. They also used inflatable boats and helicopters to retrieve bodies from the water and inaccessible areas.
Bulldozers worked over the past two days to fix and clear roads to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid and heavy equipment urgently needed for search and rescue operations. The city is 250 kilometers east of Benghazi, where international aid started to arrive on Tuesday.
Libya’s neighbors, Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia, as well as Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates, have sent rescue teams and humanitarian aid.
Mohammed Abu-Lamousha, a spokesman for the east Libya interior ministry, on Tuesday put the death tally in Derna at more than 5,300, according to the state-run news agency. Dozens of others were reported dead in other towns in eastern Libya, he said.
At least 10,000 people were still missing in the city, according to Tamer Ramadan, Libya envoy for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. He said 40,000 people have been displaced in Derna and other towns affected by the floods in eastern Libya.
Authorities have transferred hundreds of bodies to morgues in nearby towns. In the city of Tobruk, 169 kilometers east of Derna, the Medical Center of Tobruk’s morgue received more than 300 bodies of people killed in the Derna flooding; among them were 84 Egyptians, according to a list of the dead obtained by The Associated Press.
Dozens of bodies of Egyptians killed in the floods were returned to their home country. A funeral for 22 Egyptians was underway on Wednesday in their village of El-Sharif in the southern province of Beni Suef. Four others were buried in their hometown in the Nile Delta province of Beheira, local media in Egypt reported.
(With input from agencies)
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