At least 5,000 people have died and 10,000 are believed to be missing after Storm Daniel dumped so much rain on Libya’s northeast that two dams collapsed, sending water flowing into already inundated areas.
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, Oussama Hamad, prime minister of the east-based government, reported “more than 2,000 dead and thousands missing,” in the city of Derna alone.
Abu Chkiouat later told Al Jazeera that he expected the total number of dead across the country to reach more than 2,500, as the number of missing people was rising.
“We can confirm from our independent sources of information that the number of missing people is hitting 10,000 so far,” Tamer Ramadan, the head of a delegation of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), told reporters in Geneva via video link from Tunisia.
Videos showed a wide torrent running through Derna’s city centre after dams burst. Ruined buildings stood on either side.
Another video shared on Facebook, which Reuters could not independently verify, appeared to show dozens of bodies covered in blankets on the pavements.
Convoys of aid and assistance were heading towards the city.
Libya is politically divided between east and west and public services have crumbled since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising that prompted years of conflict.
The internationally recognised government in Tripoli does not control eastern areas but has dispatched aid to Derna, with at least one relief flight leaving from the western city of Misrata on Tuesday, a Reuters journalist on the plane said.
Other countries, including the United States, also said they would help.
