HH The Amir directs urgent assistance to Libya after catastrophic floods kill thousands
HH The Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has directed authorities to send urgent assistance to Libya, where thousands have died following heavy rains and fiery floods.
Sheikh Tamim also sent a cable of condolence to Libya’s Chairman of the Presidential Council Mohamed Al Menfi. He expressed regret over the huge loss of life in the country’s north-east region and also wished the injured a speedy recovery.
It is estimated that at least 2,000 people have died, with thousands more missing, after two dams in the country’s north-east region collapsed due to heavy rains caused by Storm Daniel.
Water from the collapsed dams flowed into already inundated areas, killing hundreds of people and displacing thousands.
Othman Abduljalil, health minister in Libya’s eastern parliament-backed government, toured the worst-hit city of Derna on Monday. He described the place as a ‘ghost town.’
“The situation in Derna was catastrophic… The bodies are still lying in many places. There're families still stuck inside their homes and there’re victims under the rubble… I expect people have been washed away into the sea, and we’ll find many of them now,” he was quoted as saying by Libya’s Almasar TV.
As many as 6,000 people are missing from Derna. The rains were the result of a very strong low-pressure system that brought huge flooding to Greece last week. It then moved into the Mediterranean before developing into a tropical-like cyclone known as a Medicane.
Ahmed Mismari, spokesperson for the eastern-based Libyan National Army, said two dams had collapsed under the pressure of flooding.
“As a consequence, three bridges were destroyed. The flowing water carried away entire neighbourhoods, eventually depositing them into the sea,” he said.
Mismari said the floods have affected several cities including Al Bayda, Al Marj, Tobruk, Takenis, Al Bayada and Battah, as well as the eastern coast all the way to Benghazi.
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