By Ikram Kouachi
Tripoli, Libya (AA): The death toll from devastating floods in Libya’s eastern city of Derna has risen to 5,300, the country’s official news agency reported on Tuesday.
In a statement, the Interior Ministry in the East Libya of the government appointed by the House of Representatives said that thousands of people are still missing, according to the news agency.
“Local rescue teams are continuing the search for missing persons,” Mohamed Aboulmosha, the ministry’s media official, said and called for an “international intervention to assist in rescue efforts.”
Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, the head of Libya’s Tripoli-based unity government, announced Tuesday the allocation of 2 billion Libyan dinars ($446.4 million) for the Benghazi and Derna Cities Reconstruction Fund to reconstruct the flood-stricken municipalities.
“Two billion Libyan dinars were allocated for the reconstruction of the affected municipalities that were destroyed by the floods,” the official Hokomitna platform reported.
Dbeibeh instructed “the Transportation Projects Implementation Agency to contract with specialized international companies to reconstruct concrete culverts and maintain a number of bridges in the affected areas in the east of the country.”
“The network of roads and bridges in Derna has totally collapsed,” Al-Hussein Sweidan, head of the roads and bridges department in the Tripoli-based government, told Anadolu. He estimated the cost to rebuild damaged roads and bridges in the city at around 300 million Libyan dinars ($67 million).
On Monday, Libya’s Presidency Council appealed to friendly countries and international aid groups to provide aid to the flood-stricken areas in the eastern region.
Other cities and towns affected by the weekend catastrophe include Benghazi, Bayda, Al Marj, and Soussa.nfl games today live
The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent on Monday put the figure of missing people in the floods’ wake at 10,000.
[Photo: A view of devastation in disaster zones after the floods caused by the Storm Daniel ravaged the region, on September 11, 2023, in Derna, Libya. Photo Handout by Libya/AA]
