Ten thousand people are missing after unprecedented flooding in Libya, the Red Cross said on Tuesday, as the extent of the damage to Derna, the port city where two dams burst over the weekend, became more clear.
Tamer Ramadan, the Libya envoy for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, gave the figure at a UN briefing in Geneva, describing the death toll as “huge”.
The health minister in the administration that controls the east of Libya said more than 3,000 people had been confirmed dead. “The number of missing people is in the thousands, and the number of dead is expected to reach 10,000,” Othman Abdel Jalil told Al-Massar TV channel.
DEVASTATION: Eyewitness footage shows the aftermath of a flood that ripped through Libya’s eastern Al Bayda city. More than 2,000 people are believed to have died in floods that hit the region. https://t.co/QA69oDr3Ht pic.twitter.com/ZIt3U4hxig
— ABC News (@ABC) September 12, 2023
