Death toll in Libya floods reaches 3,000: Benghazi administration

Relief convoys are being deployed from western Libya to the eastern region after the internationally recognized government in Tripoli declared it a disaster zone. Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah announced that an aid plane carrying 14 tonnes of supplies, medicine, equipment, and medical personnel is en route to Benghazi to provide assistance.

The eastern region, controlled by Libya’s rival administration based in Benghazi, was hit by heavy rains and flooding. The death toll is estimated to have reached 3,000, with over 1,000 bodies recovered in the hardest-hit city of Derna on the Mediterranean coast.

On Monday, Storm Daniel swept through eastern Libya, causing two dams on the Wadi Derna river to burst, leading to the release of millions of cubic meters of water downstream, inundating the river plain and affecting Derna.