The extent of the consequences of the severe floods in Libya is not yet clear, but the damage is already immense: in the particularly hard-hit port city of Derna, which has around 100,000 inhabitants, 2,300 deaths and around 7,000 injuries were reported by rescue workers on Tuesday. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent estimated that around 10,000 people were missing. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 30,000 people have become homeless. An area the size of the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt is affected. All information is preliminary, because no one can yet predict the final extent. The numbers often cannot be independently verified. It was recently assumed that up to 20,000 people could have died in Derna alone. You can read an eyewitness report from the port city here at stern
The satellite images below give an impression. The photos below show an aerial view of Derna before and after the flood. Bridges were washed away and buildings on the banks of the Wadi Darna River collapsed. You can move the slider to get an idea of the damage.
The combination of images below shows a broken dam in the south of Derna. Here too, buildings were simply washed away.
The next two shots show the city of Al-Marj, which is also affected by the flood.
More pictures from Derna can be seen in the video. The United Nations is now mobilizing help for the crisis-ridden North African country on the Mediterranean, which was plunged into chaos after the overthrow of the dictatorial ruler Muammar al-Gaddafi in 2011 and has never been able to return to order since then. Two governments are currently competing for power.
The pictures in the gallery also illustrate the situation in Libya:
Sources: Agencies, “Guardian”, Planet Labs PBC (satellite images)