The Benghazi-based administration ruling eastern Libya on Monday said at least 150 people died as a result of flooding and torrential rains left by storm “Daniel.”
The eastern authority, which rivals a United Nations-backed government in Libya’s official capital Tripoli, says thousands more are missing and has declared the city of Derna “a disaster area.”
What do we know so far?
Health authorities said a confirmed death toll from the weekend flooding stood at 61 as of late Monday. However, this tally did not take into account Derna, which had become inaccessible.
With the latest estimate at 150 dead, The head of the Red Crescent aid group in the region said the death toll for Derna was expected to hit 250.
Videos posted online by residents of the city showed major devastation, with entire residential areas erased. Footage aired on Libyan television also showed people stranded on the roofs of their vehicles calling for help, and cars being washed away by the water.
The head of Libya’s eastern government, Osama Hamad, said thousands of people were feared missing.
Years of infrastructure neglect
Hamad is at the helm of a government that is not internationally recognized, but which rules in swaths of the country controlled by General Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA). The LNA was said to be involved in rescue operations.
Derna, a city formerly held by Islamic extremists amid the chaos that enveloped Libya for more than a decade, suffers from crumbling and inadequate infrastructure.
The country has been mired in violence since a NATO-supported uprising in 2011 toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi who was later killed.
rc/jcg (AFP, dpa, Reuters)
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