At least 30,000 people lost their homes in the floods in the coastal city of Derna in eastern Libya, the UN estimates. There are more than 5,000 fatalities.
Bodies are lying nearby on the streets of the Libyan coastal city of Derna in a video shot by an eyewitness.
In the flood that surprised the Libyans in Derna, the death toll has already been counted at least 2,200.
The flood literally caught many by surprise. About 95 percent of the country’s surface area is desert.
– People were sleeping. No one was able to prepare for this, says the resident of Derna Mustafa Salem in an interview with news agency Reuters.
What happened has been a shock to Salem. He says he lives in a neighborhood opposite the Al-Sahaba Mosque.
– We lost 30 people. 30 family members. We haven’t found a single one.
Derna is probably the unluckiest of the cities, because the dams of the nearby Wadi Derna river collapsed almost to the ground and rushed huge masses of water right into Derna.
According to the representative of the Red Cross, seven-meter waves swept through the city of Derna. According to some reports, evacuation orders from the flood were ignored. Libya, located in North Africa, was devastated by the storm named Daniel at the end of last week.
According to the authorities, there are more than 5,000 flood victims in total. As many as 10,000 people are missing.
It has not been possible to identify all the bodies that have been found, says the director of the hospital in Derna, Wahda Mohamad al-Qabis.
– Those who have been identified have been buried immediately. Those that have not been identified are first photographed and numbered and then buried, he says.
Some of the dead have been buried in mass graves.
Flood waves seven meters high
According to the flood, an entire block of the city of Derna was lost.
The destruction in the city of Derna is perhaps the worst, but Benghazi, the second largest city in Libya, was also affected.
– We appeal to young Libyans. If you have a medical degree or even just studies, come and help. There is a shortage of nurses, we need help, says a volunteer Mohammed Qamaty.
Prime Minister of Libya Abdul Hamid al-Dbeibah still denied on Tuesday that the country needed medical assistance such as doctors or ambulances.
– Thank God, we have 400 ambulances in traffic. But we are having trouble collecting the bodies out of the sea, he said.
In any case, many aid organizations are preparing to help the Libyans. Among other things, the World Food Program WFP has promised to deliver food aid to five thousand families.
Neighboring countries Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia as well as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates have promised to help Libya. There is also support from the United States.
Libya is a poor and unstable country
Libya, with a population of around seven million, has been unstable since the country’s leader, a dictator Muammar Gaddafi was ousted from power by a military alliance with the support of NATO in 2011.
The Libyan population is relatively young. The average age is only about 26 years. Approximately one in two young people is unemployed.
Libya has oil and gas reserves, but still about a third of the entire population lives below the poverty line.
During the summer and early autumn, extreme weather phenomena and natural disasters have been reported in different parts of the world.
In North Africa, the flood in Libya was preceded by a devastating earthquake in Morocco.
Sources: Reuters, AFP, AP