Storm, floods in Libya leave over 2,000 dead

BENGHAZI, September 11

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Authorities in eastern Libya said over 2,000 people were killed and thousands more were missing after a massive flood ripped through the city of Derna following a heavy storm and rain.

The head of the Red Crescent aid group in the region had earlier on Monday said Derna’s death toll was at 150 and expected to hit 250.

Ahmed Mismari, the spokesperson for the Libyan National Army (LNA) that controls eastern Libya, said in a televised news conference that the disaster came after dams above Derna had collapsed, “sweeping whole neighbourhoods with their residents into the sea”. Mismari put the number of missing at 5,000-6,000.

Libya is politically divided between east and west and public services have crumbled since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising that prompted years of conflict. The internationally recognised government in Tripoli does not control eastern areas.

Osama Hamad, the head of a parallel eastern-based administration, told local television that more than 2,000 were dead and thousands more missing.

Storm Daniel swept in over the Mediterranean on Sunday, swamping roads and destroying buildings in Derna, and hitting other settlements along the coast, including Libya’s second biggest city of Benghazi.

Photographs of Derna, which could not be immediately verified, showed a wide torrent running through the city centre where a far narrower waterway had previously flowed. Ruined buildings stood on either side. — Reuters