The spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior of the parallel eastern government, based in Benghazi and supported by Parliament, Muhammad Abu Moshe, warned that The numbers could continue to increase in the coming hours as rescue efforts continue, complicated by difficult access to this mountainous area and telecommunications outages.
His counterpart from the Government of National Unity (GUN), based in Tripoli and recognized by the international community, Tareq al Kharaz, revealed for his part that 1,300 bodies have already been identified and buried while entire families are missing as a result of torrential rains, which makes reconnaissance difficult.
Devastating floods in #Libya have wreaked havoc over the past 48 hours. The situation is critical due to the number of official deaths, close to 3,000, and missing persons exceeding 10,000.
The catastrophe would be one of the largest in recent decades.… pic.twitter.com/7yivvt1zB6
— SkyAlert Storm (@SkyAlertStorm) September 12, 2023
“We do not need food or medicine but specialized rescue and search teams. We have a large number of bodies washed into the sea by the floodswhich hinders their recovery,” declared GUN Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah during a tribute to the victims in the capital.
The Council of Ministers of his administration approved this Tuesday the allocation of a budget of 384 million euros for the reconstruction fund for Benghazi and Derna as well as 96 million euros for the victims, for which he ordered the Ministry of Local Government carry out a census of the damaged areas.
Storm, floods and breakage of two dams in Derna
In Derna, the fourth largest city with 120,000 inhabitants, two dams collapsed, releasing more than 33 million liters of water that flowed into the center of the capital and They swept away residential areas, bridges and roads in their wake. Meanwhile, dozens of towns and villages continue to be submerged by floods in Benghazi, Al Bayda, Al Marj and Soussa
The Tobruk Medical Center revealed the receipt of 45 bodies of Egyptian citizens and the Palestinian embassy confirmed the death of twelve of its nationals, including a five-year-old child. Given the massive concentration of corpses, local authorities asked for citizen collaboration to participate in the rescue tasks and transfer the victims to the morgues in neighboring towns.
After hitting Greece and Turkey, Cyclone Daniel was downgraded to a subtropical storm on September 9 and began to weaken this Monday as it headed towards neighboring Egypt. according to a report by the Arab Regional Meteorological Center. Eastern Libya is home to the main oil fields and terminals. The National Oil Company (NOC) has declared a “state of maximum alert” and “suspended flights” between production centers, where activity has been drastically reduced.
Storm Daniel, described by experts as an “extreme phenomenon in terms of the amount of water falling,” affected Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria in recent days, leaving 27 dead.
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