Derna: Libya’s flood disaster, which killed thousands in the city of Derna, also displaced more than 43,000 people, the International Organization for Migration said Thursday.
A tsunami-sized flash flood broke through two aging river dams upstream from the coastal city after the Mediterranean Storm Daniel lashed the area on September 10.
It razed entire neighborhoods, sweeping untold thousands of people into the sea.
The official death toll stands at more than 3,300 — but the eventual count is expected to be far higher, with international aid groups giving estimates of up to 10,000 people missing.
“An estimated 43,059 individuals have been displaced by the floods in northeastern Libya,” the IOM said, adding that a “lack of water supply is reportedly driving many displaced out of Derna” to other areas.
“Urgent needs include food, drinking water and mental health and psychosocial support,” it said.
Mobile and Internet services were meanwhile restored after a two-day disruption, following protests Monday that saw angry residents blame the authorities for the high death toll.
Authorities had blamed the communications outage on “a rupture in the optical fiber” link to Derna, but some Internet users and analysts charged there had been a deliberate “blackout.”
Tripoli-based Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah announced that communications had been restored in the east, in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.
War-scarred Libya remains split between Dbeibah’s UN-backed and nominally interim government in the west, and another in the disaster-hit east backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
The dams that were overwhelmed by the torrential rains of September 10 had developed cracks as far back as the 1990s, Libya’s top prosecutor has said, as residents accused authorities of negligence.
Much of Libya’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair in the chaos since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
Haftar’s forces seized Derna in 2018, then a stronghold of radical Islamists, and with the reputation as a protest stronghold since Qaddafi’s days.
The demonstrators had gathered on Monday outside Derna’s grand mosque and chanted slogans against the parliament in eastern Libya and its leader Aguilah Saleh.
In a televised interview Wednesday evening, Libya’s prosecutor general Al-Seddik Al-Sour vowed “rapid results” in the investigation into the cause of the tragedy.
He added that those suspected of corruption or negligence “have already been identified,” without naming them.
Survivors in have Derna meanwhile faced new threats.
The United Nations warned this week that disease outbreaks could bring “a second devastating crisis” to the flood-hit areas.
Local officials, aid agencies and the World Health Organization “are concerned about the risk of disease outbreak, particularly from contaminated water and the lack of sanitation,” the UN said.
Libya’s disease control center has warned that mains water in the disaster zone is polluted and urged residents not to use it.
Libya flood disaster displaced over 43,000 people: IOM
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Libya flood disaster displaced over 43,000 people: IOM
- International aid groups giving estimates of up to 10,000 people missing
- The United Nations warned this week that disease outbreaks could bring “a second devastating crisis” to the flood-hit areas
Red Sea marine traffic up 60 percent after Houthis narrowed targets, EU commander says
- Shipping traffic, which reached a low of 20-23 ships daily in August last year, is still short of an average of 72-75 ships a day, said Gryparis
- Gryparis said he could not guarantee that merchant ships won’t be attacked
MADRID: Red Sea marine traffic has increased by 60 percent to 36-37 ships a day since August 2024, but is still short of volumes seen before Yemen’s Houthis began attacking ships in the region, according to the commander of the EU’s Aspides naval mission.
The number of merchant ships using the narrow Bab Al-Mandab strait increased after missile and drone attacks by the Houthis slowed and the US and the rebel group signed a ceasefire deal, Rear Admiral Vasileios Gryparis said in an interview in Madrid.
But shipping traffic, which reached a low of 20-23 ships daily in August last year, is still short of an average of 72-75 ships a day seen before the Houthis began attacks in the Red Sea in November in 2023 in support of Palestinians over Israel’s war in Gaza, said Gryparis.
The mission, which was established to safeguard navigation in the strategic trade route linking the Mediterranean with the Gulf of Asia through the Suez Canal, was extended in February when it was also tasked with tracking illegal arms shipments and monitoring vessels carrying sanctioned Russian oil.
The last attack on a merchant ship took place in November 2024 and the Houthis have also narrowed their objectives, saying their targets are Israeli ships and ships that have a connection with Israel or have docked at an Israeli port, Gryparis said.
“If you have a vessel that does not correspond to this criteria... there is a huge possibility — more than 99 percent — that you’re not going to be targeted by the Houthis,” Gryparis said.
Still, Gryparis said he could not guarantee that merchant ships won’t be attacked.
Some companies have been deterred from using the route because of the mission’s lack of ships, which can cause delays of as much as a week for those seeking to be escorted through the area, he said.
He said the mission has between two and three ships operating at one time and has requested the EU provide it with 10 ships to increase its capacity for protection.
The mission has provided close protection to 476 ships, shot down 18 drones, destroyed two remote-controlled boats used to attack ships and intercepted four ballistic missiles, he said.
How many hostages are left in Gaza?
- Hostages still in captivity: 56, of whom Israel believes 33 are dead
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel has recovered the bodies of two hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli American Gad Haggai and Judih Weinstein — who was Israeli, American and Canadian — were killed during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack into southern Israel that ignited the war in Gaza. Their remains were returned to
Israel in a special operation by the army and the Shin Bet internal security agency, Netanyahu said.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages in the Oct. 7 attack. More than 54,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, have been killed in the ensuing conflict, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Here are details on the hostages:
Total hostages captured on Oct. 7, 2023: 251
Hostages taken before the Oct. 7 attack: 4, including 2 who entered Gaza in 2014 and 2015 and the bodies of 2 soldiers killed in the 2014 war
Hostages released in exchanges or other deals: 148, of whom 8 were dead
Bodies of hostages retrieved by Israeli forces: 43
Hostages rescued alive: 8
Hostages still in captivity: 56, of whom Israel believes 33 are dead. Netanyahu has said there are “doubts” about the fate of several more.
The hostages in captivity include: 5 non-Israelis ( 3 Thais, 1 Nepalese, 1 Tanzanian), of whom 3 (2 Thais and 1 Tanzanian) have been confirmed dead.
Egypt, Greece agree to protect status of Mount Sinai monastery, after court ruling
- Egypt and Greece intend to move forward based on the long-standing tradition and the already established status of an emblematic monastery for its Greek Orthodox character of worship
ATHENS: Greece and Egypt have agreed to safeguard the status of one of the world’s oldest sites of Christian worship, foreign ministers of both countries said late on Wednesday, after an Egyptian court ruling last week cast uncertainty over its future.
The St. Catherine’s Monastery, at the foot of Egypt’s Mount Sinai, was founded in the 6th century and is the oldest Christian monastery still in use for its original function, says UNESCO, which has listed the area as a World Heritage site.
Revered by Christians, Muslims and Jews, the monastery is at the site where by Biblical tradition Moses received the Ten Commandments.
But last week, an Egyptian court ruling seen by Reuters ordered Orthodox monks to vacate several plots of land that the monks have used for years, including vineyards and gardens adjacent to the monastery compound, on the grounds that they were illegally sequestered, prompting a diplomatic flurry between Cairo and Athens over the site’s status.
“We agreed in the immediate future to work toward safeguarding the rights of the monastery, as well as its legal status,” Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said after meeting his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty in Cairo.
“Both Egypt and Greece intend to move forward based on the long-standing tradition and the already established status of an emblematic monastery for its Greek Orthodox character of worship.”
Abdelatty said that the ruling preserves the monastery’s profound spiritual value and religious standing, and confirmed that the monks would continue to have access to and use of the monastery and its religious and historical sites, according to a foreign ministry statement. With a long history of diplomatic ties, Greece and Egypt have deepened cooperation in recent years.
St. Catherine’s is a sprawling complex, and according to tradition it was built around a burning bush where God was said to have spoken to Moses as described in the Book of Exodus. Its library is one of the most extensive worldwide, containing some of the world’s earliest Christian manuscripts.
Israel PM says bodies of two hostages retrieved from Gaza
- The bodies were of Judy Weinstein-Haggai and Gad Haggai from Kibbutz Nir Oz
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday the bodies of two Israelis killed in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack and held in Gaza had been returned to Israel.
“In a special operation by the (security agency) and the (military) in the Gaza Strip, the bodies of two of our hostages held by the murderous terrorist organization Hamas were returned to Israel: Judy Weinstein-Haggai and Gad
Haggai from Kibbutz Nir Oz, may their memory be blessed,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Judy and Gad were murdered on October 7 and abducted to the Gaza Strip,” he added.
UAE, Egypt leaders renew call for Gaza ceasefire
- The two leaders stressed “the importance of intensifying efforts to achieve a ceasefire” in Gaza
DUBAI: UAE’s Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Wednesday reiterated the call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip during their meeting in Abu Dhabi.
During the two leaders’ talks at Qasr Al-Shati in Abu Dhabi, they stressed “the importance of intensifying efforts to achieve a ceasefire” in Gaza and working “towards a clear political horizon for a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution.”
The US earlier vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate truce in the besieged enclave, the release of all hostages held by Hamas, and unhampered delivery of humanitarian supplies territory’s starving population.
Sheikh Mohamed and Sisi, during their high-level talks, also discussed ways to further strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries “particularly those that advance their shared development goals and serve the mutual interests of their peoples.”
They also reviewed regional and international issues as well as recent developments particularly aimed at restoring security and stability in the Middle East region.
