(Benghazi) Floods caused by torrential rains have killed at least 150 people in eastern Libya, hit in turn by “Storm Daniel” after Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, an official source said on Monday .
“At least 150 people have been killed due to flooding caused by Storm Daniel in Derna, Jabal Al-Akhdar regions and Al-Marj suburbs,” Mohamed Massoud, a spokesperson, told AFP. word of the head of the parallel executive based in Benghazi (east).
Described by experts as an “extreme phenomenon in terms of the amount of water that has fallen”, the storm called Daniel has also hit Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria in recent days, killing at least 27 people.
It also caused “significant material damage to infrastructure and private property”, added the Libyan spokesman.
Storm “Daniel” hit eastern Libya on Sunday afternoon, notably the coastal towns of Jabal al-Akhdar (northeast) but also Benghazi where a curfew was declared and schools closed. The region had already been affected by torrential rains for several days.
The east of the country is home to the main oil fields and terminals. The National Petroleum Company (NOC) has decreed “a state of maximum alert” and “suspended flights” between production sites where activity has been drastically reduced.
“Destroyed City”
Rescue teams were dispatched Sunday to Derna, a city of more than 100,000 inhabitants (900 km east of Tripoli) crossed by a wadi which flows into the Mediterranean.
Authorities in eastern Libya “lost contact with nine soldiers during rescue operations in this town”, according to Massoud.
On Monday, Osama Hamad, head of the parallel government, appointed by Parliament and based in eastern Libya, declared Derna a “disaster city”. Hundreds of residents are still stranded there in hard-to-reach areas while rescue teams, backed by the army, are trying to come to their aid.
Footage shot by residents of eastern cities like Derna, al-Bayda and smaller towns shows massive mudslides and entire neighborhoods under water, as well as collapsed roads and buildings.
A Derna city council official described the situation in his city as “catastrophic”, “out of control” and requiring “national and international intervention”, in statements to the local channel Libya al-Ahrar.
He reported the collapse of four main bridges and two buildings.
National mourning
Endowed with the most abundant oil reserves in Africa, Libya has been plunged into chaos since the fall of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and rocked by divisions and violence.
For a year and a half, two governments have been vying for power there: that of Abdelhamid Dbeibah in the West, recognized by the UN, and that appointed by Parliament and supported by the strongman of the East, Khalifa Haftar.
During an extraordinary council of ministers broadcast live on television on Monday, Mr. Dbeibah announced “three days of national mourning”, stressing “the unity of all Libyans” in the face of this disaster.
The UN mission in Libya said it was “closely monitoring the emergency situation […] in the eastern region of the country”, expressing its solidarity with the families of the victims, in a message published on X (ex-Twitter).
The French ambassador to Libya, Mostafa Mihraje, offered his condolences to the victims and expressed his “solidarity with the Libyan people in this ordeal”, also on X.
In neighboring Egypt, the authorities called for caution on the northern coast which borders eastern Libya, and announced that they were starting preparations to minimize the impact of storm Daniel. The weather forecast predicts heavy rain for three days.