floods have killed more than 2,300 people and 5,000 people are still missing, announces the spokesperson for the Libyan emergency services

The toll of the floods in Libya is terrible. The number “huge” deaths could be counted in the thousands, announced Tuesday, September 12, an official from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). A report, communicated on Tuesday by the spokesperson for the Libyan emergency services, already shows more than 2,300 deaths in the floods, in Derna alone. At the same time, more than 5,000 people are missing and around 7,000 have been injured, said Oussama Ali, spokesperson for the Libyan “Rescue and Emergency Service”.

“The humanitarian needs far exceed the capacities of the Libyan Red Crescent and even the capacities of the government,” worried this manager. “This is why the government in the East has launched an appeal for international aid and we will also launch an emergency appeal shortly”insisted Tamer Ramadan, during the regular UN press briefing in Geneva. The head of the IFRC delegation in Libya says he hopes more precise information during the day on the balance sheet.

Storm Daniel hit the east of the country on Sunday afternoon, notably the coastal towns of Jabal al-Akhdar, but also Benghazi, where a curfew was declared and schools were closed. Described by experts as a phenomenon “extreme in terms of the amount of water that fell”, Storm Daniel has already caused at least 27 deaths in recent days in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria.