Derna: Libya’s flood disaster, which killed thousands in the city of Derna, also displaced more than 43,000 people, the International Organization for Migration said Thursday.
A tsunami-sized flash flood broke through two aging river dams upstream from the coastal city after the Mediterranean Storm Daniel lashed the area on September 10.
It razed entire neighborhoods, sweeping untold thousands of people into the sea.
The official death toll stands at more than 3,300 — but the eventual count is expected to be far higher, with international aid groups giving estimates of up to 10,000 people missing.
“An estimated 43,059 individuals have been displaced by the floods in northeastern Libya,” the IOM said, adding that a “lack of water supply is reportedly driving many displaced out of Derna” to other areas.
“Urgent needs include food, drinking water and mental health and psychosocial support,” it said.
Mobile and Internet services were meanwhile restored after a two-day disruption, following protests Monday that saw angry residents blame the authorities for the high death toll.
Authorities had blamed the communications outage on “a rupture in the optical fiber” link to Derna, but some Internet users and analysts charged there had been a deliberate “blackout.”
Tripoli-based Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah announced that communications had been restored in the east, in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.
War-scarred Libya remains split between Dbeibah’s UN-backed and nominally interim government in the west, and another in the disaster-hit east backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
The dams that were overwhelmed by the torrential rains of September 10 had developed cracks as far back as the 1990s, Libya’s top prosecutor has said, as residents accused authorities of negligence.
Much of Libya’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair in the chaos since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
Haftar’s forces seized Derna in 2018, then a stronghold of radical Islamists, and with the reputation as a protest stronghold since Qaddafi’s days.
The demonstrators had gathered on Monday outside Derna’s grand mosque and chanted slogans against the parliament in eastern Libya and its leader Aguilah Saleh.
In a televised interview Wednesday evening, Libya’s prosecutor general Al-Seddik Al-Sour vowed “rapid results” in the investigation into the cause of the tragedy.
He added that those suspected of corruption or negligence “have already been identified,” without naming them.
Survivors in have Derna meanwhile faced new threats.
The United Nations warned this week that disease outbreaks could bring “a second devastating crisis” to the flood-hit areas.
Local officials, aid agencies and the World Health Organization “are concerned about the risk of disease outbreak, particularly from contaminated water and the lack of sanitation,” the UN said.
Libya’s disease control center has warned that mains water in the disaster zone is polluted and urged residents not to use it.
Libya flood disaster displaced over 43,000 people: IOM
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Libya flood disaster displaced over 43,000 people: IOM
- International aid groups giving estimates of up to 10,000 people missing
- The United Nations warned this week that disease outbreaks could bring “a second devastating crisis” to the flood-hit areas
Hundreds mourn in Syria’s Homs after deadly mosque bombing
- Officials have said the preliminary investigations indicate explosive devices were planted inside the mosque but have not yet publicly identified a suspect
HOMS: Hundreds of mourners gathered Saturday despite rain and cold outside of a mosque in the Syrian city of Homs where a bombing the day before killed eight people and wounded 18.
The crowd gathered next to the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque in the Wadi Al-Dhahab neighborhood, where the population is predominantly from the Alawite minority, before driving in convoys to bury the victims.
Officials have said the preliminary investigations indicate explosive devices were planted inside the mosque but have not yet publicly identified a suspect.
A little-known group calling itself Saraya Ansar Al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its Telegram channel, in which it indicated that the attack intended to target members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam whom hard-line Islamists consider to be apostates.
The same group had previously claimed a suicide attack in June in which a gunman opened fire and then detonated an explosive vest inside a Greek Orthodox church in Dweil’a, on the outskirts of Damascus, killing 25 people as worshippers prayed on a Sunday.
A neighbor of the mosque, who asked to be identified only by the honorific Abu Ahmad (“father of Ahmad“) out of security concerns, said he was at home when he heard the sound of a “very very strong explosion.”
He and other neighbors went to the mosque and saw terrified people running out of it, he said. They entered and began trying to help the wounded, amid blood and scattered body parts on the floor.
While the neighborhood is primarily Alawite, he said the mosque had always been open to members of all sects to pray.
“It’s the house of God,” he said. “The mosque’s door is open to everyone. No one ever asked questions. Whoever wants to enter can enter.”
Mourners were unable to enter the mosque to pray Saturday because the crime scene remained cordoned off, so they prayed outside.
Some then marched through the streets chanting “Ya Ali,” in reference to the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law whom Shiite Muslims consider to be his rightful successor.
