Libyan Red Crescent: There is no confirmed number of victims of catastrophic flooding in Derna 

The Libyan Red Crescent Society has denied that the death toll from the floods that struck the city of Derna in the east of the country had reached 11,300, according to what the United Nations announced on Saturday, citing the society.

The head of the Libyan Red Crescent Society, Abd Al Salam Ghaith Al Hajj, announced that the rescue and search teams are still working to find alive people in Derna, noting that there are no confirmed numbers of victims.

Al Hajj said, according to Sputnik agency, “there is no confirmed number of victims yet, and the search is still continuing to find alive people, as the volunteers of Red Crescent were able today to rescue two girls from under the rubble. Now data is being collected by the teams and at the end of the search, the actual number will be announced”.

Commenting on a UN report about the number of victims exceeding 11,000 dead and 10,000 missing, Al Hajj said: “I do not know where the UN got this false information from, as we have not declared it to anyone and we have no knowledge of these numbers”.

When asked about the coordination with UN relief teams, Al Hajj said:”I am not aware of the presence of any United Nations organization there except UNICEF which arrived two days ago. There is cooperation with the national and local organizations.

The head of the Libyan Red Crescent Society confirmed the presence of many international relief teams (the number of which exceeded eight teams), in addition to local teams, which work under the management of one operations room, and all statistics and numbers are sent to the main operations room.

Al Hajj indicated that the rescue teams are working currently mainly inside the city of Derna and its surroundings due to the massive damage there, and Red Crescent volunteers are present in Derna, Sousse, Al-Bayada, Al-Wardiyah, and all the affected areas, and they are performing their duty fully.

According to the latest statistics of the Libyan government appointed by Parliament, the number of victims of floods in Derna reached 3,283 people, after 31 new deaths were recorded yesterday.

Souha Suleiman