Summary

  • The death toll following the flooding in Libya has reached around 11,000, the Red Crescent in Derna says

  • Some 20,000 people have been reported as missing, it says, as workers continue to recover bodies

  • Most of the thousands of deaths could have been avoided, the UN's World Meteorological Organization says

  • Warnings should have been issued, leading to evacuations, "and we could have avoided most of the human casualties"

  • Meanwhile, Libyan politician Guma El-Gamaty says the flooding was a disaster waiting to happen

Live Reporting

Edited by Emily McGarvey and Holly Wallis

  1. Watch: People in Libya at risk from waterborne diseases

    The international focus must be on aid for Derna, says the UN

    The UN is warning that tens of thousands of people displaced in Libya are now at risk of exposure to waterborne diseases.

    Jens Laerke, deputy spokesperson for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme that wells have been contaminated and there could be a secondary wave of disease and even death if this is not urgently addressed.

  2. King sends condolences as UK pledges initial £1m in aid

    The UK government has announced up to £1m in support for Libya, while the King and Queen have said they are "desperately saddened" by the devastating floods.

    King Charles sent a message to the head of Libya's Presidential Council, Dr Mohamed Menfi, yesterday evening.

    The King said: "We mourn with all those who have lost their loved ones, and continue to pray for everyone whose lives and livelihoods have been affected by the horrific floods.

    "I admire greatly all those who are engaged tirelessly in the rescue efforts in such dire conditions, and praise their selfless bravery."

    The Foreign Office said that it is working with organisations on the ground to target those with the most urgent needs with issues like shelter, healthcare and sanitation.

  3. Call for inquiry into dam collapse

    Leaders of Libya's Tripoli-based administration have called on the country's prosecutor to open an investigation into the collapse of two dams that led to catastrophic flooding in the city of Derna, BBC Monitoring reports.

    Mohammed al-Menfi, the chairman of Libya's highest executive institution, the Presidency Council (PC), ordered the prosecutor to hold accountable anyone found to have committed errors or neglect leading to the dams' collapse.

    He also called for the prosecution of anyone hampering the arrival of international relief efforts, local media said.

    There have been criticisms that the dams were not properly maintained for years.

  4. 'I lost at least 50 family members'

    Libyans have been speaking about losing entire families to the deadly floods.

    Usama Al Husadi, a 52-year-old driver who was working on the night when disaster struck, could not find his wife and five children after searching everywhere. His wife’s phone was switched off.

    Weeping, he told the Reuters news agency he lost “at least 50 members from my father’s family... missing and dead”.

    Wali Eddin Mohamed, a 24-year-old brick factory worker, lost 15 family members and nine friends.

    "All were swept away by the valley into the sea," he told Reuters.

    "May God have mercy upon them them and grant them heaven."

  5. Work together to get aid to isolated Derna - former UK ambassador

    Derna is in a very remote part of Libya and has been "neglected for years", a former British ambassador has told the BBC.

    Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, Peter Millett says the eastern city is a "very difficult place to reach" with just one narrow road leading to it.

    Emergency assistance is "needed right now, not next week", Millett adds.

    He says the rival factions splitting the country "need to come together with a central co-ordinated unit" to work with the UN and other big aid organisations to get help to Derna quickly.

    "From what I’ve seen so far, the two governments are not working together… the money is on one side, the control is on the other,” he adds.

  6. Why is Libya split into two rival governments?

    Map showing locatuion of Libya in North Africa, bordered by Egypt to the east, Algeria and Tunisia to the East, Niger and Chad to the South and the Mediterranean sea to the north. It shows the capital Tripoli being located on the north west coast and the city of Benghazi on the north east coast.

    Libya has been split between rival governments in the east and west for around a decade.

    The country was under foreign control for centuries until it gained independence in 1951 and came under the control of dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 1969.

    He ruled autocratically until he was toppled and killed in 2011 - in a rebellion assisted by Western military intervention.

    In 2014, renewed fighting broke out, with Libya split between two administrations - one based in the east, and one in the west in the capital Tripoli. The two sides signed a ceasefire in 2020 but political rivalries continue.

    In 2021, a Government of National Unity was formed in Tripoli with Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh as the internationally-recognised prime minister, but the following year the eastern-based parliament formed a rival - and rather similarly named - Government of National Stability.

  7. Satellite imagery shows Derna before and after the flood

    Satellite images of Derna before the flood shows a city neatly bisected by a river. Two bridges offer crossing points, and there are trees and green spaces dotted throughout.

    In the satellite image below, we can see the scale of destruction left by the flood. Dozens of city blocks on the right-hand side have been entirely swept away, and the entire city is caked in red mud.

    The top image shows Derna, where the river neatly bisects the city. Below, what remains is a muddy ruinMaxar Technologies via Reuters

  8. UN warns of danger of disease from water supply

    The UN has warned of the danger of disease from contaminated water in Libya.

    Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the water wells system has been contaminated.

    "People need to drink and if they start to drink contaminated water, we could see a secondary wave of disease and even death if we do not manage to stop that in its tracks."

    The UN currently has people on the ground in Derna and is directing its existing stockpiles of food in the country to the area.

    Laerke said: "We are rushing in all the aid we possibly can at the moment. It really is all hands on deck.

    "We are sending in a specialised relief team who is going to work with responders on the ground to help with the co-ordination of the lot of work that lies ahead."

  9. International aid and rescue efforts in Libya ramping up

    If you've just joined us, our main news this morning is that international efforts to help Libya in the wake of catastrophic floods are gathering pace, as the number of people feared dead continues to rise.

    Rescue teams from Egypt, Turkey and Qatar are among those to have arrived.

    The mayor of the devastated city of Derna estimates that as many as 20,000 people may have died.

    He said the figure was based on the number of districts completely destroyed when two dams burst on Sunday, releasing a huge surge of water.

    Many bodies remain under the rubble of collapsed buildings or in the sea.

    The Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization sending aid to LibyaReuters

    Jordan's Hashemite Charity Organization is sending aid to Libya

  10. People taking initiative to organise aid

    A public health lecturer at Benghazi University in eastern Libya, who is helping co-ordinate aid, has told the BBC that people have taken the initiative to organise themselves to collect and distribute aid.

    Jaser Asweri says they are providing food and non-food items including medications and sending them on a daily and hourly basis to the worst-hit area of Derna.

    "It is something that you can see also if you go from Benghazi or from wherever you go from to Derna, you can see the situation is very crowded because everyone is going there," he says.

    Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the floods and rival administrations in the country have been working together with international rescue and aid groups.

    Red Crescent workers in DernaReuters

  11. Much of Derna now just rubble and bodies, resident says

    Aerial view of Derna, with a large path of collapsed and damaged buildings following the river's course to the seaEPA

    All that is left of much of Derna is the rubble of collapsed buildings and the bodies of people killed in the floods, a photographer based in the eastern city has told the BBC.

    Taha Muftah told Newshour on the World Service that the sound of the dams collapsing was like an air strike or heavy gunfire.

    The water now has stopped and what is left is only the rubble, and the people who were taken by the flood under the water."

    Muftah says he is fortunate to live in the eastern side of Derna, which is on a hill and was spared the worst of the floods.

    The photojournalist says rescuers have arrived and are "doing their best and giving all their efforts", but they lack the necessary equipment and experience to deal with the scale of the disaster.

    Experts had warned the dams were at risk of collapse since 2011 but "nobody did anything about it", he adds.

  12. Damage looks like earthquake - Turkish Red Crescent

    The Turkish Red Crescent has compared Derna "to an earthquake".

    Deputy director Ibrahim Ozer told BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight the damage looked like it had been caused by an earthquake.

    "I've been to many disasters including floods, wildfires and earthquakes but this one is quite different," he said. "The storm struck the city quite hard."

    The team, who spent more than six hours travelling from the Libyan city of Benghazi, recently arrived in Derna where two dams burst due to heavy rainfall submerging whole areas.

  13. Disease is the next serious threat

    Lina Sinjab
    Reporting from Beirut

    There have been calls for aid, water and – most starkly – body bags.

    Rescue workers have now begun arriving in Derna, but none of them are in any doubt that the number of people known to have died is going to rise.

    The beach at Derna is covered with clothes, pieces of furniture and children’s toys from homes that were hit.

    As we've reported, there are fears that as many as 20,000 people may have lost their lives.

    But with so many bodies under buildings, or left in the water, disease is the next serious threat.

    If there is any hope, it's that the rival governments of this divided country appear to have put aside their differences, for now, to co-ordinate relief efforts.

    A view shows damaged cars, after a powerful storm and heavy rainfall hit LibyaReuters

  14. Libyan prime minister suspends learning for 10 days

    Mohammed Gajoum a member of the awareness team and Danish Demining Group, gives a lecture to middle school students on the dangers of the landmines and remnants of war at Dar El-Baida elementary and middle school in southern Tripoli, Ain-Zara on March 22, 2022 Tripoli, Libya.Getty Images

    Libya's ministry of education will also transfer students whose schools were damaged by floods

    The Prime Minister of Libya’s Government of National Unity Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba has suspended learning countrywide for 10 days, in a show of solidarity with Libyans affected by the 11 September floods.

    Libya’s internationally-recognised Government of National Unity, which is based in the capital, Tripoli, made the announcement late on Wednesday.

    Libya’s two rival governments, the internationally-recognised Government of National Unity led by PM Al-Dabaiba and the eastern Libya government, led by PM Osama Hamad, have both been undertaking response efforts in the flood-afflicted eastern Libya.

    The announcement added that the suspension of learning will allow schools to be used as temporary shelters for flood survivors.

  15. BBC Verify

    Why the damage to Derna was so catastrophic

    We have been looking at the factors which made these floods so devastating to the eastern Libyan city of Derna.

    More than 5,000 are confirmed dead and that number is expected to rise, after entire neighbourhoods disappeared into the sea as a huge tsunami-like torrent of water swept through while families slept.

    A storm sweeping across Libya’s Mediterranean coast dumped 400mm (16 inches) of rain on some areas in less than 24 hours, compared to the 1.5mm the country normally experiences in the whole of September.

    This extraordinary deluge of water overwhelmed two key dams on the Wadi Derna river running through the city, destroying several key bridges as well.

    Residents of the city, who had been ordered by the local authorities to stay in their homes, reported hearing a loud blast before the city was engulfed in water and said floods reached nearly 3m (10ft) in places.

    Rescue workers in DernaReuters

  16. Rival factions hampering rescue efforts, journalist says

    Libya having an internationally recognised government in the west rivalled by another administration in the east – where the flooding has taken place - has hindered rescue efforts, a local journalist has told the BBC.

    Abdulkader Assad, political editor of the Libya Observer, explains the country has been split by these factions for a decade.

    Libya became divided since the collapse of dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, splitting between two rival governments and becoming mired in conflict between different militias.

    The Libyan people have not felt the impact of this division fully, he says, because the “presence of two governments was all about vying for power and taking control of the country and parts of the country”.

    But now that some of the cities are experiencing this natural disaster, this calamity, we could see that the lack of a unified centralised government is actually affecting the lives of people."

    Libyan Red Crescent volunteersReuters

  17. What happened in Libya

    As we report on the latest developments, here is a recap of what happened in Libya:

    • A powerful storm triggered devastating flooding in eastern Libya
    • In Derna, a city of around 100,000 people, two dams collapsed due to heavy rain, leading to a huge tsunami-like torrent sweeping through the city
    • Whole families were washed away and entire neighbourhoods disappeared
    • Tens of thousands of people have been displaced
    • The flooding was trigged by Storm Daniel which hit the north African nation on Sunday and brought heavy rain
    • Libyan rescue teams are now being helped by international crews in the Derna area
    • The African country’s rival governments have requested international aid and are liaising with each other

  18. Derna mayor raises fears of many thousands of deaths

    An aerial image of the destruction of DernaEPA

    As many as 20,000 people are feared to have died in floods in Libya, according to a local official.

    Catastrophic floods deluged the east of the country on Sunday.

    The mayor of port city Derna told Saudi TV News station Al Arabiya he estimated 18,000 to 20,000 died when two dams burst, releasing a tsunami of water as people slept.

    His figures are based on the number of communities destroyed by the flood water, he told the channel.

    Unrecovered bodies remain under rubble or in the sea, increasing the risk of disease.

    Meanwhile, rival governments in Libya have requested international aid.

    Stay with us as our team brings you the latest updates and reaction to this crisis.