Libya floods: One quarter of buildings in city of Derna destroyed
Flash flooding caused by Storm Daniel has destroyed at least 891 buildings in Libya's coastal city of Derna, according to state media.
The storm caused two dams to collapse, unleashing floods down a river running from Libya's eastern Green Mountains through the city and into the sea, sweeping away entire neighbourhoods. Over 11,300 people have died and more than 10,000 are still missing.
The flooding has ravaged large swaths of the city. Libyan state media reported that an estimated additional 211 buildings have also been partially damaged in the disaster.
Around 398 other buildings have been submerged in mud, leaving tens of thousands of survivors with no shelter or anywhere to stay.
The flooding has also wreaked havoc on schools, roads and hospitals, further adding to the challenges survivors face as well as making it more difficult to deliver emergency aid to the worst affected areas.
Survivors have shared photos of the magnitude and destruction caused by the disaster online. Images show cars swept away, wedged between trees.
Satellite imagery also revealed the scale of the destruction, showing vast parts of the city submerged in mud, while a number buildings have been swept into the sea.
The flooding has also had an impact on historical and heritage sites. Damage has been inflicted on a Unesco world heritage site in the ancient Cyrenaica province, on the slopes of the Green Mountains.
Last week, Middle East Eye found the archaeological site battered by floodwater and landslides.
Numerous tombs, funerary stones and other archaeological structures dating from the Greek, Roman and Byzantine eras had been buried under mud or carried by water torrents down into the lower valleys of the Mansoura region.
Many have raised concerns over the remains of ancient sites that sit close to the coast.
Over Libya's tumultuous past decade, Derna has been both neglected and attacked by various shifting authorities. It was one of the first cities to rise up against Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. In 2015, eastern commander Khalifa Haftar put the city under a siege that lasted for three years.
Between May 2018 and January 2019, Haftar subjected it to a brutal assault, seeking to expunge it of an armed group and assert his authority over eastern Libya.
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