2023-09-14 15:15:09
An official in the Libyan Ministry of Health, in an interview with Sky News Arabia, explained the efforts currently underway for rescue operations, searching for missing persons, and recovering bodies, and the obstacles facing these operations.
Local authorities in Derna expected the death toll from the floods to exceed 20,000, and the Libyan army moved to evacuate the city to facilitate search and rescue operations.
Rescue efforts
Malik Marsit, the official spokesman for the Emergency and Support Center in the Libyan Ministry of Health, told Sky News Arabia that the rescue teams were able to rescue the twenty-year-old Abdulaziz Sarqiwa, who remained under the rubble for 96 hours in the city of Derna.
He added that the Ministry’s Medical, Emergency and Support Center established more than 6 field hospitals to provide medical services to the injured.
He pointed out that the center contacted a Spanish team specialized in rescue, which arrived in Derna and is currently beginning its work in rescue operations.
He talked regarding the spread of several medical and relief teams in many areas to provide services and first aid, with the strength of each rescue group reaching more than 150 paramedics and doctors.
He stressed the deployment of teams with rubber boats to search for the injured and recover the bodies.
The most prominent areas covered by rescue teams are Derna, Sousse, and Shahat.
He said that the medical needs and supplies necessary to treat the injured are available, but the obstacle in rescue operations is the lack of advanced logistical equipment to search for missing persons.
The numbers are staggering
A member of the permanent Libyan mission to the United Nations, Ayman Badr, who is from the city of Derna, told Sky News Arabia that the number of deaths in Derna has reached more than 7,000 so far, and the numbers are still increasing every hour. A previous government tally stated that 5,300 people were killed in Derna, the Libyan region most affected by Storm “Daniel.” The mayor of Derna, Abdel Moneim Al-Ghaithi, told Sky News Arabia that the death toll in the stricken Libyan city may exceed 20,000. Al-Ghaithi spoke over the phone regarding the extent of the destruction that befell the city located in eastern Libya, as a result of the torrents and floods caused by Storm “Daniel.”
He continued: “The situation is very large and surprising for the city of Derna. We were not able to confront it with our capabilities that preceded the storm and the torrent. Even if the capabilities were large and advanced, the scene we saw might not be confronted by us.”
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