TRIPOLI (LIBYA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – Over 2,000 people have lost their lives, and over 5,000 others are between injured and missing so far in different cities and towns in eastern and southeastern Libya due to the torrents of rainwater and strong winds of Storm Daniel that revaged the region on Sunday and Monday. International solidarity and support statements are flooding in to Libya, in the wake of the devastating storm.
The Libyan Prime Minister-designate in eastern region, Osama Hammad, confirmed that they had registered 2,000 deaths only in the coastal city of Derna, confirming that entire neighborhoods had been ravaged and washed away by the storm. The Interior Minister, Essam Abu Zariba, also said that the number of missing persons could be over 5,000.
Meanwhile, the Government of National Unity and Presidential Council based in Tripoli declared three days of mourning and flew the Libyan flag at half mast to honor the victims, while the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives issued a distress call to the international community to help Libya respond to the weather catastrophe, saying the situation was sprawling out of control in some areas.
Storm Daniel arrived in eastern Libyan coast in the early hours of Saturday, after it had hit Greece and Bulgaria and a number of Mediterranean countries including South Italy and Malta. Once it hit Libya, the scale of destruction became bigger given the poor infrastructure and the nature of the areas within the storm’s zone.
The United Nations said it is assigning an emergency team to support the authorities in eastern Libya. Italy, Tunisia, Qatar and Turkey already confirmed their committment to send urgent assistance to the areas hit by the storm in coordination with the Libyan authorities to overcome the ordeal of floods. The United States Embassy in Libya said; we are closely monitoring the situation and are reviewing reports indicating the work of all Libyan authorities in their response to the affliction.
– Photo: OpenStreetMap –
(ITALPRESS).
