Click to see full-size image. Source: the Libyan National Army.
Thousands of people were killed and at least 10,000 went missing after heavy rains in northeastern Libya caused by a huge Mediterranean storm destroyed two dams.
Storm Daniel barrelled across the Mediterranean into the war-torn country on September 10, hitting Derna, a city of at least 100,000 people.
The collapse of two dams sent water rushing towards Derna through a seasonal riverbed that stretches from highlands to the shore of the city. The floods wiped out as much as a quarter of the city.
As many as 6,000 people went missing in Derna, Othman Abduljalil, health minister in Libya’s eastern administration, told Libya’s Almasar TV. The minister called the situation “catastrophic,” when he toured the city on September 11. .
Tamer Ramadan, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies delegation in Libya, put the number of missing people at 10,000 during a briefing to reporters in the Swiss city of Geneva.
“The death toll is huge,” the organization official said on September 12.
At least 5,300 people are thought dead, said the interior ministry of Libya’s eastern government, the state-run Libyan News Agency reported.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said emergency response teams had been mobilized to help on the ground.
Meanwhile, Turkey and several other countries rushed aid to Libya, including search and rescue vehicles, rescue boats, generators and food.
Libya has been unstable since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed strongman Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. The country is now split between the Government of National Unity in the capital Tripoli and a rival government based in Benghazi and backed by the House of Representatives and the Libyan National Army, led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
The deadly floods in Libya came just two days after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit the central Moroccan region of Marrakesh–Safi, killing at least 2,900 people.
what lybia used to be under gaddafi..
kaddáfi bol možno diktátor, ale líbyu budoval, darebácky štát usa, ju zničil. líbya patrila k málo krajinám na africkom kontinente ktoré prosperovali. kaddáfi snáď vybudoval najväčšiu umelú rieku na svete. chcel zabezpečiť vodu pre líbyu. budoval farmy na pestovanie potravín. chcel zaviesť v líbyi zlatý štandard a preto ho zlikvidovali. presne na tomto padol ak husajn!!!
they probably all went to the beach. i know i would if the city was flooding.