A week after a tsunami-sized flash flood devastated the Libyan coastal city of Derna, sweeping thousands to their deaths, international aid efforts gathered pace as search-and-rescue efforts continued.
Traumatised residents, 30,000 of whom are now homeless in Derna alone, badly need clean water, food, shelter and basic supplies amid a growing risk of cholera, diarrhoea, dehydration and malnutrition, United Nations agencies have warned.
“Thank God for giving us patience. I am sitting here trying to clean and verify who is missing. I am trying to understand the situation. I did not leave,” Hamad Awad, a Derna resident, told Al Jazeera.
“In this city, every single family has been affected,” one resident, Mohammad al-Dawali, told the AFP news agency.
The health minister of the eastern administration, Othman Abdeljalil, has said 3,252 people were confirmed dead in Derna.
