The scale and cost of the flooding in eastern Libya is getting worse by the hour, after heavy rainfall caused two dams to burst. More than 5,300 bodies have been recovered in the city of Derna, officials told Reuters, warning that the death toll could double to 10,000 people – around one-tenth of the city’s total population (satellite photos show the scale of destruction). The UN says at least 30,000 people in Derna have been left homeless. Libya’s neighbours, Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia, as well as Turkey and the UAE, have sent rescue teams, but not all have arrived. “They say it’s like doomsday,” one Libyan journalist told the BBC. “The water took the ground beneath them.” Libyan authorities seemingly had no plan to monitor the dam or evacuate residents, despite being able to track Storm Daniel as it crossed the Mediterranean, said one analyst. “We say Mother Nature, but this is the act of man – it’s the incompetence of Libya’s political elites,” said Anas El Gomati, director of Libyan policy research centre.
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