(Derna) A week after devastating floods which left thousands dead in the Libyan city of Derna, local and foreign rescuers are busy searching for the bodies of thousands of other people still missing on Sunday.
In this city of 100,000 inhabitants bordering the Mediterranean in the east of the country, the disaster left a landscape of desolation: bridges cut in two, overturned cars, smashed trucks, electric poles and trees uprooted and personal belongings stained with mud, according to an AFP journalist.
Mohammed Al-Zawi, 25, lives in a house near Derna beach. He told AFP that he saw, on the night of the tragedy, “floods of water washing away cars with people inside, people and property. Everything was dumped into the sea.”
PHOTO ZOHRA BENSEMRA, REUTERS
A woman walks among the debris in Derna.
According to a final report communicated in the evening by the Minister of Health of the government based in the east of the divided country, Othman Abdeljalil, the disaster left 3,283 dead, after the discovery of 31 bodies on Sunday.
International humanitarian organizations and Libyan officials have warned, however, that the final toll could be much higher due to the very large number of missing people, estimated at thousands.
Furthermore, four members of a Greek rescue team were killed and 15 others injured, including seven “in critical condition”, in a “horrible accident” on the road, according to the Minister of Health.
The accident occurred when the Greek team’s vehicle, which was on the road from Benghazi to Derna, 300 km to the east, collided with a car carrying a Libyan family, including three of their members were killed and two others seriously injured, the minister added.
In Athens, the Greek army headquarters confirmed the accident, but limited itself to speaking of “light injuries”.
“Seen Death”
Storm Daniel, which hit Derna on September 10, caused the rupture of two dams upstream and caused tsunami-like flooding along the wadi that runs through the city. She took everything in her path.
PHOTO YOUSEF MURAD, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rescue teams are searching for the bodies of the victims, a week after the tragedy.
Mohamad Abdelhafidh, a Lebanese resident in Derna, told AFP that he had “seen death”.
He was sleeping when he felt a “shake”. “I thought it was an earthquake.” The water rose to the level of his apartment, on 3e floor.
Libyan and foreign rescue teams say they are finding bodies every day, but searches are made difficult by the tons of mud that has covered part of the city.
Daily, dozens of bodies are extracted from the rubble of neighborhoods devastated by floods or washed up by the sea and buried in an apocalyptic landscape.
According to residents, most of the victims were buried under mud or swept towards the Mediterranean.
In the port of Derna on Sunday, three volunteer divers from western Libya merely watched as an Italian rescue team used an underwater camera to search the water for bodies.
According to them, the Libyan Red Crescent had asked them to let “specialized teams” do it, “because the decomposition of the bodies represents a risk for their health”.
When he arrived from Benghazi, Hamza al-Khafifi, a soldier, claimed to have seen bodies scattered on the Derna corniche: “old people, young people, women, men and children”. “There were bodies stuck between the rocks.”
“Much more difficult”
PHOTO ZOHRA BENSEMRA, REUTERS
A demolished building in Derna.
“I saw with my own eyes the scale of the disaster. This crisis is beyond Libya’s capacity to manage it,” said UN envoy to Libya Abdoulaye Bathily after a visit to Derna on Saturday.
The organization of relief is made complicated by the political chaos that has reigned in the country since the death during a popular revolt of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011: two governments, one in Tripoli (west), recognized by the UN , and the other in the East, are competing for power.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told the BBC on Sunday that rescue teams must, among other things, “have the necessary logistics, be able to get to the right place and […] be in contact with the authorities. “A lot of these things are just not in place (in eastern Libya) and that makes things a lot more difficult,” he lamented.
FRENCH CIVIL SECURITY PHOTO BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
French Civil Security set up a field hospital in Derna to treat survivors.
International mobilization nevertheless remains strong. Planes carrying rescue and assistance teams from international organizations and several countries continue to arrive at Benghazi airport.
“In Libya, the damage caused by the storm is immense. France stands united. Our field hospital is operational,” French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Sunday on X (ex-Twitter).