Flooding in Libya leaves 2,000 people feared dead and more missing after storm collap

[misskit]

CAIRO (AP) — Mediterranean storm Daniel caused devastating floods in Libya that broke dams and swept away entire neighborhoods in multiple coastal towns in the east of the North African nation. As many as 2,000 people were feared dead, one of the country's leaders said Monday.


The destruction appeared greatest in Derna, a city formerly held by Islamic extremists in the chaos that has gripped Libya for more than a decade and left it with crumbling and inadequate infrastructure. Libya remains divided between two rival administrations, one in the east and one in the west, each backed by militias and foreign governments.


The confirmed death toll from the weekend flooding stood at 61 as of late Monday, according to health authorities. But the tally did not include Derna, which had become inaccessible, and many of the thousands missing there were believed carried away by waters after two upstream dams burst.


Video by residents of the city posted online showed major devastation. Entire residential areas were erased along a river that runs down from the mountains through the city center. Multistory apartment buildings that once stood well back from the river were partially collapsed into the mud.


In a phone interview with station Monday, Prime Minister Ossama Hamad of the east Libyan government said 2,000 were feared dead in Derna and thousands were believed missing. He said Derna has been declared a disaster zone.


Ahmed al-Mosmari, a spokesman for the country's armed forces based in the east, told a news conference that the death toll in Derna had surpassed 2,000. He said there were between 5,000 and 6,000 reported missing. Al-Mosmari attributed the catastrophe to the collapse of two nearby dams, causing a lethal flash flood.


Since a 2011 uprising that toppled and later killed long-time ruler Moammar Gadhafi, Libya has lacked a central government and the resulting lawlessness has meant dwindling investment in the country's roads and public services and also minimal regulation of private building. The country is now split between rival governments in the east and west, each backed by an array of militias.


Derna itself, along with the city of Sirte, was controlled by extremist groups for years, at one point by those who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, until forces loyal to the east-based government expelled them in 2018.


At least 46 people were reported dead in the eastern town of Bayda, Abdel-Rahim Mazek, head of the town’s main medical center said. Another seven people were reported dead in the coastal town of Susa in northeastern Libya, according to the Ambulance and Emergency Authority. Seven others were reported dead in the towns of Shahatt and Omar al-Mokhtar, said Ossama Abduljaleel, health minister. One person was reported dead Sunday in the town of Marj.


The Libyan Red Crescent said three of its workers had died while helping families in Derna. Earlier, the group said it lost contact with one of its workers as he attempted to help a stuck family in Bayda. Dozens of others were reported missing, and authorities fear they could have died in the floods that destroyed homes and other properties in several towns in eastern Libya, according to local media.


In Derna, local media said the situation was catastrophic with no electricity or communications.


Essam Abu Zeriba, the interior minister of the east Libya government, said more than 5,000 people were expected to be missing in Derna. He said many of the victims were swept away towards the Mediterranean.


“The situation is tragic,” he declared in a telephone interview on the Saudi-owned satellite news channel Al-Arabiya. He urged urged local and international agencies to rush to help the city.


Georgette Gagnon, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Libya, said early reports showed that dozens of villages and towns were “severely affected ... with widespread flooding, damage to infrastructure, and loss of life.”


“I am deeply saddened by the severe impact of (storm) Daniel on the country ... I call on all local, national, and international partners to join hands to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the people in eastern Libya,” she wrote on X platform, formerly known as Twitter.


In a post on X, the U.S. Embassy in Libya said it was in contact with both the U.N. and Libyan authorities and was determining how to deliver aid to the most affected areas.


Over the weekend, Libyans shared footage on social media showing flooded houses and roads in many areas across eastern Libya. They pleaded for help as floods besieged people inside their homes and in their vehicles.


Ossama Hamad, the prime minister of the east Libya government, declared Derna a disaster zone after heavy rainfall and floods destroyed much of the city which is located in the delta of the small Wadi Derna on Libya’s east coast. The prime minister also announced three days of mourning and ordered flags across the country to be lowered to half-staff.


Controlling eastern and western Libya, Cmdr. Khalifa Hifter deployed troops to help residents in Benghazi and other eastern towns. Ahmed al-Mosmari, a spokesperson for Hifter’s forces, said they lost contact with five troops who were helping besieged families in Bayda.


Foreign governments sent messages of support on Monday evening. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates, said his country would send humanitarian assistance and search-and-rescue teams to eastern Libya, according to the UAE’s state-run WAM news agency.


Turkey, which supports the country's Tripoli-based government in the west, also expressed condolences, along with neighboring Algeria and Egypt, and also Iraq.


Storm Daniel is expected to arrive in parts of west Egypt on Monday, and the country’s meteorological authorities warned about possible rain and bad weather.

Flooding in Libya leaves 2,000 people feared dead and more missing after storm collapsed dams

[harrybarracuda]

And a couple of thousand dead in Morocco from the earthquake.

It seems no-one really cares.

[Norton]

Al Jezeera has good coverage and the scenes of destuction and human suffering in both Morroco and Libya are incredable. Poor bastards are in dire need of help. Many more deaths if help not sent ASAP.

[harrybarracuda]

Al Jezeera has good coverage and the scenes of destuction and human suffering in both Morroco and Libya are incredable. Poor bastards are in dire need of help. Many more deaths if help not sent ASAP.

That's because they are "good muslims".

And since Qatar is sitting on half of the world's largest gas field, it can afford to send it.

[Joe 90]

Ruddy horrendous stuff going on in North Africa at the moment.

RIP to the lost souls.

[misskit]

Aid workers struggle to reach city in Libya where catastrophic flooding killed thousands

Scenes of biblical devastation, the dead stacked in the streets and aid for the living too slow in arriving. That is the situation in North Africa where at least 5,100 are dead from flooding in Libya. The mayor of one city says the toll could be as high as 2,000. And to the west in Morocco, nearly 3,000 are now officially counted among the dead from the Friday earthquake. Ali Rogin reports.

VIDEO Aid workers struggle to reach city in Libya where catastrophic flooding killed thousands | PBS NewsHour

[Seekingasylum]

So, since when did Africa join Asia?

Biblical inundations and consequences flowing from corrupt and incompetent governance might pique interest but this is not the right forum.

[misskit]

Oops.

[taxexile]

Europe and eventually the UK should prepare for another flood as people smugglers and small boat suppliers will be rubbing their grubby paws with glee in anticipation of the forthcoming business uptick and payday.

[bsnub]

Europe and eventually the UK should prepare for another flood as people smugglers and small boat suppliers will be rubbing their grubby paws with glee in anticipation of the forthcoming business uptick and payday.

The Italians recognized that Gaddafi had a value as he kept the unwashed masses off EU soil as long as they kept him well compensated.

[taxexile]

Indeed, the games we play eh?

[bsnub]

Indeed, the games we play eh?

It is what makes the world go round.

[Seekingasylum]

Europe and eventually the UK should prepare for another flood as people smugglers and small boat suppliers will be rubbing their grubby paws with glee in anticipation of the forthcoming business uptick and payday.

People smuggling is perhaps the second largest money spinner for Libya’s warring factions.

Until the EU matches this revenue the industry will thrive.

It’s a problem indeed, but looking at it in UK terms this traffic is actually quite good in that by the time it is filtered by passage to the Channel it represents a useful steady flow of lower end labour currently eschewed by British dross.

[taxexile]

Nah! they thrive in their victimhood, encouraged by the bleeding heart sops that will shortly be running the country and milking the system and working the increasingly lucrative black market economy run by their predecessors under the noses of the authorities who are too cowed to object. Third world status not far off.

[Seekingasylum]

No, you are quite wrong here Tax. You may well be on sure ground footling around some buxom girl’s bicuspids while leering down into her décolletage, but on migration matters you are talking through your fundament.
I think you will find many tough immigration laws were imposed by Labour administrations e.g The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 which paved the way for the 1971 Act modernising post commonwealth migration, the 2000 Order that effectively revolutionised on entry control by transferring all grants of leave to enter for more than six months, for any purpose, to pre entry visa issue outside of the UK, and the 2006 Act imposing penalties of imprisonment and fines on illegal employment for employers.

The thing is, quitting the EU was a fuck up. Now, it will be repaired by the Labour government who will restore the old status quo when no such phenomenon of boat people arriving prevailed.

Illegal migration is a global phenomenon and requires a comprehensive and interlinked series of policies coordinated by a consensus of countries to deal with it. The UK is already rejoining Frontex in the first step back to sanity.

Brexit stimulated the Channel migration pattern, suck it up Tax.

[taxexile]

The thing is, quitting the EU was a fuck up. Now, it will be repaired by the Labour government who will restore the old status quo when no such phenomenon of boat people arriving prevailed.

they used container trucks before boats you brexit obsessed nutter. a labour administration would just open the borders, thereby making illegals legal. quitting the sclerotic eu was not a fuck up, the fuck up was the subsequent mismanagement and inability to take advantage of the many freedoms brexit offered. in a country divided into dozens of competing factions as it by race, class, gender, entitlement, victimhood, envy, hatred and stupidity, we are being served up on a plate, oven ready so to speak, to be devoured by the chinese, the indians, the mohammedans, the rainbow brigade brownhatters snd carpetmunchers and the net zero loons. and labour are ill equipped to do anything about it.

thailand seems a haven of normality and decency compared to the eu, the uk and the usa.

[Seekingasylum]

Tax, you are becoming quite febrile. Trouble at home, perchance?

Lorries and other vehicular clandestine trafficking has been omnipresent since forever and persists. The boat phenomenon is a consequence of Brexit because the market has rightly concluded that the UK is now a third country politically isolated from the EU and therefore likely to offer a better outcome in avoiding returns.

As I said before Labour is generally quite tough on immigration controls and I cannot detect any deviation from the operation of the Immigration Act 1971 occasioned by changes in government except of course when Labour changed the whole ball game by compelling migrants seeking entry for any purpose other than to visit to first obtain a visa before they arrived at a UK port of entry.

But if you do wish to witter on in your frazzled state then might I inform you that it was a Tory regime that recently introduced the protocol that all US citizens, Canadians, Koreans, Japanese, Singaporeans, Antipodeans, and EU nationals can gain entry by an automatic gate in possession of a chipped passport, their passports are not endorsed with an entry stamp, and they are not interviewed.

But really, the current flow of asylum seekers is not unsustainable and is not comparable to the trends that have persisted in recent history since the advent of cheap air travel occasioned by the introduction of the Boeing 747, and by the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 which in practice was perhaps the greatest bulwark against illegal migration across the European land mass.

The thing is, migration is normal and constitutes dynamic impetus to the economy and to societal change.

Today’s Afghan child asylum seeker is tomorrow’s heart surgeon.

[harrybarracuda]

it will be repaired by the Labour government

You mean the ones who long ago realised that sucking up to Johnny Foreigner and giving them a passport and free swag was a great way to bump up your vote count?

Yeah, right.

[taxexile]

^
Sometimes its best just to ignore his brexit obsessed trolling.

He seems to think that his working life as a blinkered minor pen pushing civil servant clacking away on a typewriter in a dingy smoke filled basement in solihull or staines gives him bragging rights over us well travelled forum members with a lifetime of lived experience in the real world, dealing with characters from every background imaginable.

Heart surgeons my arse.

[Seekingasylum]

The proficient eye surgeon who teaches from time to time at Moorfields and did my cataract was an Iranian refugee.

You really are quite silly these days and flying in formation with our resident Estuarine bigot ‘Arry is not a good look.

Of course my civil service experience has bestowed a greater knowledge of events and why things are the way they are. I bestrode the zeitgeist of change for over 30 years in loyal service of our Queen and country, whereas you Tax were a mere money grubbing tooth puller defrauding the NHS and the taxpayer.

[malmomike77]

I bestrode the zeitgeist of change for over 30 years in loyal service of our Queen and country,

sat behind and watched it happen is more accurate you ludicrous cretin.

[Seekingasylum]

You mean the ones who long ago realised that sucking up to Johnny Foreigner and giving them a passport and free swag was a great way to bump up your vote count?

Yeah, right.

Essentially, any migrant who has acquired indefinite leave to enter for a period exceeding twelve months may apply for citizenship. This is not conditional upon race, colour, creed or gender. And subject to: successful completion of the knowledge of life in the UK test, there being no relevant convictions or outstanding civil debt liabilities, and not a person of an extreme political persuasion or of some other moral inadequacy, most qualify provided fees are paid and one has sworn an oath of allegiance.

I know of no policy whereby the pathway to naturalisation can be bypassed in order to increase suffrage among differing demographics present within the UK. True, the Home Secretary’s discretion on nationality matters is unfettered but when this is exercised it is usually to some benefit to the Crown or it is in the national interest.

You silly, little grubby oaf.

[Seekingasylum]

sat behind and watched it happen is more accurate you ludicrous cretin.

Au contraire, my little man. Is the factory floor filth still ingrained in your wee mitts. I daresay after a lifetime toiling on the coalface of your grubby existence it must be very difficult to be anything other than an inferior.

Har, har.

[malmomike77]

^ So you didn't even acquire a full CS pension in c30 years, dear me what a failure - i can just see the look of disappointment in your fathers rhuemy eyes as he looked at the last of his line

[taxexile]

The proficient eye surgeon who teaches from time to time at Moorfields and did my cataract was an Iranian refugee.

and no doubt obtained his refugee status legally, as opposed to the queue jumping illegal boat people who thanks to the connivance of a grubby army of state funded dreadlocked activists and human rights ambulance chasing human rights lawyers subvert the system to their advantage right under the noses of the smirking civil servants intent on one thing and one thing only, and that is the installation of the kneeling bollard and his slagdog deputy in downing street.

If they think things are bad now, and they are, then the situation in 18 months time will be infinitely worse. Allah akhbar, power to the people, man the picket lines and mines a triple.