The death toll from unusual floods in eastern Libya is set to skyrocket, with 10,000 people reported missing, according to the Red Cross on Tuesday.
According to Libyan officials, at least 150 people were killed in flooding in Libya as storm Daniel roared through the Mediterranean, pounding Turkey, Bulgaria, and Greece. The exact toll, according to Tamer Ramadan of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, is possibly many times higher.
“Our teams on the ground are still doing their assessment, (but) from what we see and from the news coming to us, the death count is huge,” Ramadan told reporters in Geneva via video link from Tunis.
“It might reach to the thousands. We don’t have a definite number right now,” he said, stressing though that the organization had independent sources saying “the number of missing people is hitting 10,000 persons so far.”
Speaking on the Libyan network Almasar, Oussama Hamad, Prime Minister of the east-based government, has reported “more than 2,000 dead and thousands missing” in the city of Derna alone, but no medical sources or emergency services have confirmed such figures.
However, Ramadan stated that “it’s very likely that the number declared (by the eastern official) could be close to the correct number” based on the statistics he was seeing. He expressed hope that the IFRC would be able to provide a more specific disaster toll later Tuesday.
“The humanitarian needs are much more beyond the abilities of the Libyan Red Crescent and even the abilities of the government,” Ramadan said. “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.