The Red Cross warned on Tuesday that the death toll from unusual floods in eastern Libya is certain to rise substantially, with 10,000 people reported missing.
According to Libyan officials, at least 150 people were killed in the 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.
Tamer Ramadan reported media, “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”.
“It might reach to the thousands”, he continued.
“We don’t have a definite number right now”, he added, adding that the organization had independent sources that stated the number of missing people is approaching 10,000 persons.
On the Libyan network Almasar, Prime Minister Oussama Hamad of the east-based government declared more than 2,000 dead and thousands missing in the city of Derna alone, but no medical sources or emergency services have corroborated 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 added.
“That’s why the government in the east has issued an international appeal for support”, he explained, adding that IFRC was also planning to publish an emergency appeal for cash to help with the response.
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