at least 30,000 Derna residents displaced after disaster

Libya is still in shock. Several days after the destructive floods which left at least 2,300 dead, many residents found themselves without housing. At least 30,000 of the 100,000 people living in Derna have been displaced, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced on Wednesday September 13. In Al-Bayda, the organization reports 3,000 displaced people, and 2,000 in Benghazi, two towns located west of Derna.

Images broadcast on social media by state television channel Al-Wataniya al-Libiya show an apocalyptic landscape in the city, with devastated streets, mowed trees, razed buildings and destroyed and overturned cars, some still buried under the mud.

Derna is now only accessible via two entrances to the south, out of seven usually. Widespread power outages and telecommunications network disruptions are limiting communications. Cut roads, landslides and floods prevented relief from quickly reaching the population, who had to use rudimentary means to recover bodies buried by the dozens in mass graves.