Tripoli, September 12: After storm Daniel’s tremendous rains caused two dams to fail and completely flood whole neighbourhoods, more than 2,000 people have killed and 6,000 more are allegedly missing in Libya.
Osama Hammad, the prime minister of Libya who is headquartered in the east, verified the death toll from the “catastrophic” floods that struck eastern Libya on Sunday when speaking to a local TV station on Monday, according to Xinhua news agency.
The majority of the fatalities, according to Hammad, were recorded in Derna, a port city, where “the entire neighbourhoods were swept away.”
While the eastern-based Deputy Prime Minister Ali al-Gatrani has pleaded for foreign aid, he has called on medical professionals and rescue forces to help the city.
Three days have been set aside by local authorities to observe the victims.
On Sunday, the storm made landfall in eastern Libya, causing floods and demolishing infrastructure in its path.
The prime minister of the Government of National Unity, located in Tripoli, Abdul-Hamed Dbeibah, gave the necessary authorities instructions to be on high alert and take action to cope with the storm on Sunday, promising to “protect the people and lessen the damage.”
Mohamed Menfi, the president of the Libyan Presidency Council, has requested aid from other countries to deal with the effects of the devastating floods.
In a statement released on Monday, Menfi urged “brotherly and friendly countries and the international organisations to provide assistance and support for the disaster areas.”
He proclaimed Derna, Al-Bayda, and Shahhat to be in a crisis and urged the populace to follow the rules “to overcome this crisis” by designating these towns as distressed cities.
Those impacted by the catastrophe are now receiving immediate aid from the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Libyan Red Crescent Society.
Following the NATO-backed rebellion against late tyrant Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the six million-person nation of Libya has been split into competing east and west governments since 2014.
Armed organisations and militias support each regime.
