After the storm "Daniel" swept across the Mediterranean and earlier heavy rains fell on Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece, it reached Libya, where photos taken by residents in the stricken area showed floods, collapsed buildings and entire neighborhoods submerged under water.

edited by |Jus Mcmahon

  Middle East  section -  CJ journalist

Derna - September,12,2023

Officials in the government of eastern Libya announced on Monday that at least two thousand people died due to floods due to the collapse of dams following a heavy storm, although it is not yet clear the basis on which they based their assessment, as separate reports from different regions indicated much lower figures.

The minister of Civil Aviation and a member of the emergency committee in the government of eastern Libya, Hisham shekiwat, said on Tuesday that more than a thousand bodies have been recovered in the city of Derna, which was swept by floods, and it is not possible to count the total number of dead at the moment, but the number is very high.

He added: 'It's absolutely catastrophic... Bodies are lying everywhere in the sea,in canyons, under buildings". "I don't have a total death toll, but it's very, very big... The number of bodies recovered in the tuber exceeded a thousand... I'm not exaggerating when I say that 25 percent of the city disappeared. Many buildings collapsed".

The Libyan Emergency Service confirmed on Tuesday that at least 2,300 people died in the floods that swept through the city of Derna with a population of 100 thousand people as a result of Storm Daniel, while the Red Cross spoke of a huge death toll of up to 10 thousand victims.

The Tripoli ambulance and Emergency Services sent 1,500 body bags to Derna yesterday after the city announced a shortage of body bags.

In the same context, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a state of mourning for three days "in solidarity" with the victims of Libya and Morocco, after the two countries witnessed two natural disasters that claimed thousands of lives.

Egyptian Presidential Spokesman Ahmed Fahmy announced on his Facebook account, " three days of mourning in the Arab Republic of Egypt in solidarity with the brothers in Morocco and Libya.

Fahmy also conveyed Sisi's directive "the armed forces to provide immediate support and humanitarian relief, by air and sea," to the two countries.

Storm Daniel hit eastern Libya on Sunday afternoon, with emergency services announcing that more than 2,300 people were killed in the city of Derna, which was declared a "disaster area" due to flooding.

An Egyptian military delegation arrived in Libya on Tuesday to coordinate ways to provide assistance, accompanied by a plane loaded with medical and food supplies and rescue crews.

The minister of Health in the Libyan government, Othman Abdul Jalil, announced that all Derna hospitals have become out of service, while "there is difficulty in reaching the affected areas" in the city .

The Libyan ambulance and Emergency Services said that about 2,300 people have been killed by floods in the city of Derna so far, while more than 5,000 are missing.

The US special envoy to Libya, Richard Norton, said on the "X" platform that Washington will send aid "in coordination with its partners at the UN and the Libyan authorities to assess how best to take advantage of official US assistance".

Egypt, Qatar, Iran, Germany and Turkey are among the countries that have said they are ready to send aid to Libya.

German Chancellor Olaf Schulz said on the " X " platform, "the news about the torrential floods in Libya is alarming. Many deaths and injuries are expected, especially in the East,"he said.

Former Acting UN envoy to Libya Stephanie Williams stressed the need for urgent foreign assistance, saying in a post on "X" that the disaster "requires an urgent increase in international and regional assistance".

Libyan Health Minister Othman Abdul Jalil said that the situation in the city of Derna is "scary" amid difficulty in reaching some places in it, adding that the number of flood victims has exceeded 3,000 dead so far.