“The lack of water supply would have pushed many displaced people to leave Derna to go to other cities in the East and West,” explains the International Organization for Migration in its latest report.
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More than 43,000 people were displaced after the deadly floods which devastated eastern Libya, notably the town of Derna, announced Thursday, September 21, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), an agency of the UN. The IOM estimates that Storm Daniel caused more than 3,300 deaths on the night of September 10-11, in its latest report on the situation in eastern Libya.
According to the organization, “the lack of water supply would have pushed many displaced people to leave Derna for other towns in the East and West”. The Libyan authorities had asked the city’s population to no longer use water from the local distribution network, contaminated according to them by floodwaters.
Urgent needs for “food, water, mental health”
The UN announced earlier this week that its agencies, notably the World Health Organization (WHO), are working to “prevent the spread of disease and avoid a second devastating crisis in the region”warning of a risk coming from “contaminated water and lack of hygiene”. The urgent needs of displaced people relate to “food, drinking water, mental health and psycho-social support”added the IOM.
Furthermore, mobile telephone and internet networks were restored during the night from Wednesday to Thursday in Derna after a 24-hour outage, the Libyan authorities announced. Communications were cut off on Tuesday and journalists were asked to leave the stricken town the day after a demonstration by residents of Derna demanding accountability from the authorities in the east of the country, who they believe were responsible for the disaster.