Malta’s CPD Set To Send Team To Libya Following Storm Daniel Floods As 10,000 People Reported Missing
As Libya continues to grapple with the sheer devastation left in the wake of Storm Daniel, Malta is set to send a Civil Protection Department team to help with rescue efforts, sources have told this newsroom.
“The death toll is huge and around 10,000 are reported missing,” Tamer Ramadan, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) delegation in Libya, said Tuesday during a press briefing in Geneva.
As many as 2,000 people have already reportedly died in the “catastrophic” flooding, with parts of the eastern city of Derna being described as a “ghost town” as surreal before and after photos emerged. Other reports are already putting the unconfirmed death toll to 3,000.
“The bodies are still lying in many places,” Othman Abduljalil, health minister in Libya’s eastern parliament-backed government, told Libya’s Almasar TV yesterday evening. “There are families still stuck inside their homes and there are victims under the rubble… I expect people have been washed away into the sea, and tomorrow morning, we’ll find many of them.”
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This wouldn’t be the first time that Malta mobilised its CPD department to help neighbouring countries in their time of need: just last month, a team of 20 firefighters flew to help battle the wildfires which devastated Greece throughout the summer.
With multiple delicate rescue operations happening all across Libya’s northeastern coast, the Mediterranean country is going to need all the help it can get, so here’s hoping Malta’s best can help turn the tide or at least soften the blow of this horrific situation.
Cover Image Left: A photo from CPD’s last international operation in Greece
Stay tuned for more updates as we get them.
READ NEXT: Watch: Storm Daniel's Devastation - Bustling Libyan City Reduced To 'Ghost Town' As Catastrophic Flooding Breaks Dams
