Key Points
- The poisoned water in the city of Derna has lead to the deaths of 55 children, says a UN report.
- Landmines resurfaced from the years of conflict in country also pose a great risk.
- The official number of casualties due to the deadly floods cannot be confirmed.
People whose homes were swept away by flooding in Libya’s eastern city of Derna a week ago face the dilemma of whether to stay despite a lack of fresh water or flee through areas where landmines have been displaced by the torrents.
, bringing down residential blocks lining a usually dry river bed as people slept.
Many bodies were washed out to sea and more than a thousand have already been buried in mass graves, according to the United Nations.
Sunrise on Sunday revealed a scene of quiet devastation, with piles of rubble cleared to the sides of empty roads along with tangled metal including pieces of wrecked cars.
People unsure whether to stay or seek shelter elsewhere
Entire districts of Derna, with an estimated population of at least 120,000, were swept away or buried in brown mud.
State media said at least 891 buildings had been destroyed in the city, whose mayor has said 20,000 people might have died.
A resident who gave just one name, Wasfi, said people were at a loss over what to do next.
“We still do not know anything, we are hearing rumours, some are trying to reassure us, others are saying you need to leave the city or stay here,” Wasfi said.
“We have no water and no resources.”
A report by the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Libyan authorities had detected at least 55 children poisoned from drinking polluted water in Derna, where the homeless were surviving in makeshift shelters, schools or packed into the houses of relatives or friends.
Floodwaters had shifted landmines and other ordnance left over from years of conflict, posing an extra risk to the thousands of displaced people on the move, it said.
Official death toll in Libya cannot be confirmed
The OCHA report said at least 11,300 people had died and more than 10,000 people were missing in Derna after Storm Daniel swept over the Mediterranean and into the city and other coastal settlements.
It cited the Libyan Red Crescent for the figure but a Libyan Red Crescent spokesman said it had not published a toll and referred journalists to government spokespeople, saying “figures are changing and the Red Crescent is not responsible for this”.
Libyan authorities have opened an investigation into the collapse of two dams that caused a devastating flood in a Derna as rescue teams searched for bodies, nearly a week after the deluge killed more than 11,000 people. Source: AP / Yousef Murad
“The number of dead so far is 3252, and they are those who were buried,” an official from the administration that runs eastern Libya, Dr Osama Al-Fakhry, said.
He said 86 people had been pulled from the rubble and operations were continuing.
“There is no specific number regarding the missing because there are entire families who have died and no one came to report them, in addition to the fact that there is duplication of registration in various hospitals,” said Al-Fakhry, office manager for the health minister in the east.
Other Libyan officials have previously cited a death toll of more than 5000.
Number of people seeking shelter in the tens of thousands
OCHA said more than 40,000 people had been displaced, cautioning that the figure was likely much higher since access had been restricted to the worst-affected areas such as Derna, where at least 30,000 were displaced.
International aid organisations have flown in emergency aid and countries have sent in supplies and other help, but OCHA said much more was needed.
The country of seven million people has lacked a strong central government since a NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Libya’s internationally-recognised Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, based in Tripoli in the west, called the floods an unprecedented catastrophe.
Libya’s Presidential Council head Mohammed al-Menfi has called for national unity.
