International aid effort ramps up for flood-hit Libya after one week

A week after a tsunami-sized flash flood devastated the Libyan coastal city of Derna, sweeping thousands to their deaths, the international aid effort to help the grieving survivors has slowly gathered pace.

Search-and-rescue teams wearing face masks and protective suits kept up the grim search for bodies or any survivors in the mud-caked wasteland of smashed buildings, crushed cars and uprooted trees.

Traumatised residents, 30,000 of whom are now homeless in Derna alone, are in dire need of clean water, food, shelter and basic supplies amid a growing risk of cholera, diarrhoea, dehydration and malnutrition, UN agencies warn.

"In this city, every single family has been affected," said one resident, Mohammad al Dawali.

Another, Mohamed al Zawi, 25, recounted how he saw "a large mountain of water bringing with it cars, people, belongings... and pouring everything out into the sea".

Libya's division hampering aid effort

Emergency response teams and relief goods have been deployed from Türkiye, France, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates, with more on the way from multiple other nations. The aid effort has been hampered by the political division of Libya.

Britain's foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said "the big challenge with Libya" was that, unlike Morocco and Türkiye which were hit by major earthquakes this year, it lacks a fully functioning government to coordinate with.

"Sadly, in the eastern part of Libya, we just don't have that, and that is why we are not seeing the international support on the ground ... we would wish," he told the BBC.

Bodies on the beach and thousands missing

Amid the chaos, the true death toll remained unknown, with untold numbers swept into the sea.

The health minister of the eastern administration, Othman Abdeljalil, has said that 3,252 people were confirmed dead in Derna, where corpses wrapped in blankets and in body bags have lined squares and streets.

Libyan officials and humanitarian organisations have warned that the final toll could be much higher with thousands still missing.

A week on from the disaster, bodies are still washing up on the seashore, along with vast amounts of household items and debris.

A rescue crew from Malta's Civil Protection Department said it had discovered a beach strewn with hundreds of bodies on Friday, the Times of Malta newspaper reported.

A Libyan rescue team in an inflatable boat reported seeing "perhaps 600 bodies" at sea off the Om-al-Briket region, about 20 kilometres east of Derna, according to a video shared on social networks.

Libyan Red Cross denies UN death toll

The Libyan Red Crescent on Sunday denied that last week's flooding resulted in 11,300 deaths after the United Nations offered that toll, citing the rescue group.

"We are shocked to see our name mixed up with these figures," Libyan Red Crescent spokesman Tawfik Shoukri told AFP from Benghazi, adding that "they add to the confusion and distress of the families of the missing".