‘Sea is constantly dumping bodies’: fears Libya flood death toll may hit 20,000
www.theguardian.com
Full scale of devastation in north African nation still not clear as aid agencies struggle to reach cut-off areas
  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    International aid is slowly starting to reach the devastated port city of Derna as questions are raised over how as many as 20,000 people may have died when Storm Daniel hit the northern coast of Libya on Saturday night.

    Ten thousand people were declared missing by official aid agencies such as the Libyan Red Crescent, but the ominous higher estimate of 20,000 deaths came from the director of al-Bayda medical centre, Abdul Rahim Maziq.

    The “sea is constantly dumping dozens of bodies”, said Hichem Abu Chkiouat, the minister of civil aviation in the administration that runs eastern Libya, adding that reconstruction would cost billions of dollars.

    Mohamed Eljarh, a Libyan journalist travelling to Derna, said rescuers had yet to reach some parts of the city, especially in the east, as well as the nearby coastal town of Sousse and the municipality of al-Sahel.

    But the impression remains that the international emergency aid operation has been slow to spring into action, with attention focused on the earthquake in Morocco and experts taking time to realise the scale of the disaster.

    Maj Gen Ahmed al-Mismari, a spokesperson for the Libyan National Army, which dominates in the east, said its units acted within the first hours of the storm’s arrival and carried out their duty to the fullest extent.

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