A massive flash flood, comparable to a tsunami, breached two aging river dams upstream from a coastal city after the Mediterranean Storm Daniel battered the area on September 10.
This devastating event wiped out entire neighborhoods and swept away an unknown number of people into the sea.
Official reports confirm a death toll exceeding 3,300, but the final count is anticipated to be significantly higher, with international aid organizations estimating that up to 10,000 people are unaccounted for.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) disclosed that approximately 43,059 individuals have been displaced by the floods in northeastern Libya.
The scarcity of clean water is reportedly driving many of the displaced individuals out of Derna to seek refuge in other areas. Immediate necessities include food, potable water, and mental health and psychosocial support.
After a two-day disruption resulting from protests on Monday, during which enraged residents held authorities responsible for the high death toll, mobile and internet services have been reinstated.
Initially, authorities attributed the communication outage to a “rupture in the optical fiber” connection to Derna, but some internet users and analysts alleged a deliberate “blackout.”
Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, based in Tripoli, declared that communications have been restored in the eastern region, posting the update on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday.
War-torn Libya remains divided between Dbeibah’s UN-backed interim government in the west and another government in the disaster-stricken east, supported by warlord Khalifa Haftar.