Death toll from Libya floods could rise to more than 10,000

Authorities in eastern Libya say more than 5,300 bodies have been found in the city of Derna after flash floods and the number of victims could double.

"The waves are continuously pushing dozens of bodies ashore. We have counted more than 5,300 dead, but this number could double, because thousands are still missing," Hichem Abu Chkiouat, minister of civil aviation in the government led by military warlord Khalifa Haftar in eastern Libya, said today.

About 10,000 people are missing after the floods, with many believed to have been swept out to sea, officials said. Mustafa Salem, a resident of the eastern Libyan city of Derna, said he had lost 30 relatives so far.

Bodies of more than 5,300 flood victims found in Libya — Damaged and flooded vehicles on September 12 after a devastating landslide in the eastern Libyan city of Derna, Video: *AFP*

Satellite images of the city before and after the disaster show that the relatively small river that runs through the center of Derna has expanded many times after the flash floods, with a series of houses on both banks gone. According to Chkiouat, the reconstruction will cost billions of dollars.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Libya said at least 30,000 people had been left homeless in Derna. “IOM and its partners are delivering supplies, medicine, search and rescue equipment and personnel to the affected areas,” the organization said.

Storm Daneil, which devastated Greece last week, swept across the Mediterranean and hit Libya on September 10, bringing two days of heavy rain. Massive floods inundated and destroyed homes in the city of Derna, and hit nearby coastal communities, including the country’s second-largest city of Benghazi.

Satellite image of Derna city before and after the flood. Photo: Planet Labs

Ahmed Mismari, spokesman for the Libyan National Army (LNA), which controls eastern Libya, said flash floods caused by storms and heavy rains had caused two dams upstream of the city of Derna to burst, "sweeping entire neighborhoods and people into the sea". Derna's city council said "the situation is catastrophic and out of control".

Following a NATO-backed uprising in 2011, Libya has been politically divided, with two parallel governments: the UN-recognized government in Tripoli in the west and warlord Haftar's military government in the east.

The eastern government declared three days of mourning. Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, the interim prime minister in Tripoli, made the same decision in all affected cities, calling them “disaster areas”. The Presidential Council in Tripoli also asked for international assistance.