Death toll from Libyan floods surpasses 3,800

A The storm’s passage, on the night of September 10th to 11th, caused flooding and the destruction of two dams, creating a wave of water similar to a ‘tsunami’, which flooded and destroyed the city of Drena, in eastern Libya.

The new provisional balance, released “this afternoon”, points to at least 3,845 deaths, announced today the spokesman for a humanitarian aid supervision committee, formed by the eastern government, Mohamed Eljarh, cited by Agence France Presse.

This number, which only includes bodies buried and registered by the Ministry of Health, “is expected to increase daily”.

Mohamed Eljarh explained that the bodies buried hastily by the inhabitants, in the first days after the catastrophe, were not counted.

Also according to the spokesperson, the authorities are working to identify the victims buried without identification, as well as the missing, whose number has increased to more than ten thousand, according to estimates by the authorities and international humanitarian organizations.

Mohamed Eljarh appealed to residents to report the names of the missing to two offices created by the attorney general of Drena.

Meanwhile, searches continue to find bodies under the rubble and in the sea. At least nine foreign teams continue to participate in the searches.

More than 43,000 people have been displaced due to the floods, according to the most recent data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The Libyan Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation a week ago into the collapse of the two dams, built in the 1970s, and into the allocation of funds for their maintenance.

Read Also: Libya. NGO denounces wave of arrests in protests against mismanagement