The death toll from freak floods in eastern Libya is expected to soar dramatically, with 10,000 people reported missing, the Red Cross warned on Tuesday.
A handout picture provided by the office of Libya's Benghazi-based interim prime minister on 11 September 2023 showing vehicles piled up along the side of a coastal road in the eastern city of Derna, in the wake of the Mediterranean storm Daniel.
But Tamer Ramadan of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the actual toll was likely to be many times higher. "That's why the government in the east has issued an international appeal for support," he said, adding that IFRC was also preparing to launch an emergency appeal for funds towards the response.World Health Organisation spokeswoman Margaret Harris meanwhile described the situation in Libya as"a calamity of epic proportions".
The United Nations' World Meteorological Organisation meanwhile described how"entire neighbourhoods" in Derna had disappeared and their inhabitants been"swept away by water, after two ageing dams collapsed making the situation catastrophic and out of control".
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