Officials and rescue workers in Derna, the Libyan city devastated by flooding, say body bags and recovery teams are urgently needed to avoid an epidemic. Mayor Abdulmenam al-Ghaithi said Wednesday that the death toll could reach 20,000, Al Jazeera reports. Some bodies have been buried in mass graves but many more remain uncollected in the rubble. "During the morning, the sun is quite strong," the mayor said. "The smell and the warmth of the bodies rotting, it's really sad to say, but that's the reality underneath the buildings. So it's a very graphic and harrowing situation."
The Sunday night flood washed away entire neighborhoods and teams have been working to recover bodies from the sea and shoreline in Derna and other cities along the coast in eastern Libya. The mayor says rescue teams have arrived from countries including Egypt, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Qatar, the Guardian reports. Countries including the US, the UK, and France have also offered support. The AP reports that the UN's International Organization for Migration estimates 30,000 people have been displaced in Derna, which had a population of around 100,000 before the disaster.
Salah Aboulgasem at Islamic Relief tells Al Jazeera that the organization is focusing its efforts on the nearby town of Bayda. "We cannot get in by road to Derna. Nobody can, the road doesn't exist," he says. "So we're helping the people that have got out of there." Libya is ruled by two rival governments—one in the west and one in the east, which includes Derna—but there are signs that the two are cooperating in the wake of the disaster. The internationally recognized government based in Tripoli in western Libya has sent a delegation to assess the damage, Al Jazeera reports. (More Libya stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
