DERNA, Libya/GENEVA: Residents and rescue workers in the devastated Libyan city of Derna were struggling to cope with the thousands of corpses washing up or decaying under rubble, after a flood that smashed down buildings and swept people out to sea.
The World Health Organization and other aid groups called on authorities in Libya to stop burying flood victims in mass graves, saying these could bring long-term mental distress to families or might cause health risks if located near water.
The aid agencies spoke after a UN report showed more than 1,000 people had so far been buried in that manner since Libya, a nation divided by decade of conflict and political chaos, was hit on Sunday (Sep 10) by torrential rain from a Mediterranean storm.
Thousands were killed and thousands more are missing.
“Bodies are littering the streets, washing back on shore and are buried under collapsed buildings and debris. In just two hours, one of my colleagues counted over 200 bodies on the beach near Derna,” Bilal Sablouh, the ICRC’s regional forensics manager for Africa, told a briefing in Geneva.
Swathes of Derna, the centrepoint of the destruction in Libya’s east, were obliterated when storm water swept down a usually dry riverbed, smashed two dams above the city and brought down whole buildings while families were asleep.
The International Organization for Migration mission in Libya said on Friday that more than 5,000 people were presumed dead, with 3,922 deaths registered in hospitals, and more than 38,640 were displaced in the flood-stricken northeastern region.
Source: CNA
