The death toll from Cyclone Daniel, which crossed northeastern Libya this Sunday, reaches 6,238, while the missing exceed 9,100 and the forcibly displaced number more than 30,000 in the city of Derna alone, the most affected.. It is feared, however, that the death toll may exceed 20,000 people, a situation “disastrous beyond all comprehension,” according to WHO staff on the ground.

The spokesman for the Emergency Service in the area, Osama Ali, described the situation as “tragic” and highlighted the difficulties of the rescue teams in the face of the division of the city into two parts after the collapse of two dams that released more than 33 million of liters of water in the center of the capital, washing away residential areas, bridges and roads.

Common pits

In this town, the fourth largest in the country with 90,000 inhabitants, the lack of resources has forced rescuers to extract hundreds of victims from the rubble with household utensils and bury them in common graves in the Martouba cemetery, about twenty kilometers of distance.

The first international rescue teams have begun to land at Benghazi airport, the closest to the area.

Rami Elshaheibi, national communications officer for the World Health Organization in Libya, said the situation in Derna is “disastrous beyond all comprehension”. On its social networks, the WHO has shared images of corpses lining the sidewalks.

“There are bodies everywhere: in the sea, in the valleys, under buildings,” witnesses from the drowned city told Reuters.. “I'm not exaggerating when I say that 25% of the city has disappeared. “Many, many buildings have collapsed.”. The Libyan government's Civil Aviation Minister added that “the sea constantly throws up dozens of bodies.”

“A large-scale disaster”

For their part, Al Jazeera journalists add that “bodies washed away by the sea in the devastated city can also be seen in the distance, but for now it is too dangerous to recover them.”

To the same medium, a journalist who managed to leave Derna alive stated that the situation this Tuesday in the city was “a large-scale disaster.”

“There is no water, no electricity, no gasoline,” he told Al Jazeera. “The city is devastated. “Apartment buildings with families inside have been razed,” he said.. “There is a wave of displacement because people are trying to flee Derna, but many are trapped because many roads are blocked or missing,” adding that some families have taken refuge in schools.

NGO sources located in the area have pointed out that those forcibly displaced by the tragedy exceed 30,000 people, a third of the total population of Derna.

Cyclone 'Daniel' has hit eastern Libya (divided into two parallel governments since the beginning of 2022 due to a serious political crisis) after causing havoc last week in Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey.