At least 150 people were killed when freak floods hit eastern Libya, officials said on Monday, after Storm Daniel swept the Mediterranean, lashing Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece.
Images filmed by residents of the Libyan disaster area showed massive mudslides, collapsed buildings and entire neighborhoods submerged under muddy water.
Speaking on Libyan network Almasar, Libyan leader Oussama Hamad reported “more than 2,000 dead and thousands missing” in the city of Derna alone, but no medical sources or emergency services have confirmed such figures.
Photo: AFP / HO / media office of Libyan prime minister (Benghazi)
While media outlets in eastern Libya have largely picked up on Hamad’s remarks, separate tolls reported from various areas add up to far lower figures.
Mohamed Massoud, a spokesman for Hamad’s Benghazi-based administration, said earlier that “at least 150 people were killed as a result of flooding and torrential rains left by Storm Daniel in Derna, Jabal al-Akhdar region and the suburbs of al-Marj.”
“This is besides the massive material damage that struck public and private properties,” he said.
Hundreds of residents were still believed to be trapped in difficult-to-reach areas as rescuers, backed by the army, were trying to come to their aid.
East Libyan authorities had “lost contact with nine soldiers during rescue operations,” Massoud said.
He said Hamad and the head of a rescue committee, as well as other ministers, had traveled to Derna to evaluate the extent of the damage.
Experts have described Storm Daniel — which killed at least 27 people when it struck parts of Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria — as “extreme in terms of the amount of water falling in a space of 24 hours.”
Hamad’s government — which in war-battered Libya rivals a UN-brokered, internationally recognized transitional administration in Tripoli — on Monday declared Derna a “disaster area.”
The Western-backed government under Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid al-Dbeibeh, during an extraordinary ministerial meeting broadcast live on television, announced three days of national mourning and emphasized “the unity of all Libyans” in the face of the disaster.
National Petroleum Co, which has its main oilfields and terminals in eastern Libya, declared “a state of maximum alert” and suspended flights between production sites where activity was drastically reduced.
A Derna city council official described the situation in the city as “catastrophic” and in need of “national and international intervention,” speaking to the local TV channel Libya al-Ahrar.
He reported the collapse of four main bridges, two buildings and two dams in Derna, a city of 100,000 people that lies in a river wadi 900km east of the capital, Tripoli.
Footage broadcast by media outlets showed a massive flood washing through the city, damaging buildings in its path.
In a statement on Facebook, Libyan Presidential Council Chairman Mohamed al-Manfi called for “help from brotherly and friendly countries and international organizations.”
Al-Manfi officially declared Derna, Shahat and al-Bayda a “disaster zone.”
The storm struck eastern Libya on Sunday afternoon, hitting the coastal town of Jabal al-Akhdar especially hard, as well as Benghazi, where a curfew was declared and schools were closed for several days.
The UN mission in Libya on Monday said on X that it was “closely following the emergency caused by severe weather conditions in the eastern region of the country.”
It expressed its condolences over the deaths, and said it was “ready to support efforts by local authorities and municipalities to respond to this emergency and provide urgent humanitarian assistance.”
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed “solidarity with the Libyan people” and said his nation was mobilizing resources to provide emergency aid.
US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller offered “sympathies and condolences” to those affected by the floods, and said Washington was working with the UN and Libyan authorities to help relief efforts.
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