Libyan Red Crescent denies death toll of 11,300 cited by United Nations

The Libyan Red Crescent released a statement on Sunday (September 17), denying that last week's catastrophic flooding in Derna claimed the lives of 11,300 people after the United Nations shared the death toll in an update 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".

On Saturday, the United Nations, citing Red Crescent figures, said that the flooding had resulted in 11,300 deaths and added that another 10,100 people were missing in the city.

"These figures are expected to rise as search-and-rescue crews work tirelessly to find survivors," the UN update said.

Nearly a week after Storm Daniel hit northeastern Libya, "the humanitarian situation remains particularly grim in Derna," the update said.

UN says most casualties in Derna could have been averted

The United Nations (UN) said on Thursday (September 14) that most of the deaths due to floods in Libya's Derna could have been averted if early warning and emergency management systems had functioned properly.

During a press briefing in Geneva, Petteri Taalas, head of the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said, "With better functioning coordination in the crisis-wracked country, "they could have issued the warnings and the emergency management forces would have been able to carry out the evacuation of the people, and we could have avoided most of the human casualties."

Taalas said that the lack of weather forecasting and dissemination and action on early warnings was a large contributor to the size of the disaster. He also said that the years-long internal conflict in the country meant its meteorological "observing network has been very much destroyed, the IT systems have been destroyed."

"The flooding events came and there was no evacuation taking place because there was not the proper early warning systems in place," the WMO chief further told reporters. "Of course, we cannot fully avoid economic losses, but we could have also minimised those losses by having proper services in place," he added.

(With inputs from agencies)

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