The French ambassador to Libya, Mostafa Mihraje, said that his country’s field hospital in Derna had received 567 people: some injured and other just ill in the aftermath of floods that ravaged the Libyan coastal city following Storm Daniel’s landfall on 11 September.
Mihraje added on X platform that the 567 people included 91 children, and 14 infants, in addition to the women and men from the storm-struck city.
The French ambassador also said that the field hospital’s medical staff performed 14 surgeries, 9 hospitalizations, 105 x-rays, 36 blood tests and 19 ultrasounds.
France sent on September 16 two relief planes to the disaster area to help with the international efforts alleviate the suffering of the people in Derna and other area in eastern region. The aids sent by France included a field hospital that was set up in Derna to help the survivors, according to the French ambassador.
Storm Daniel and ensuing floods hit eastern coastal cities, especially Derna, Al-Bayda and Al-Marj, on September 10 and 11. Two dams collapsed in Derna valley – an area locally known as Wadi Derna -, washing away entire neighborhoods and killing a number of entire families. The flood torrent obliterated around a quarter or the Mediterranean city of Derna, leaving thousands dead and missing.
The spokesman for the High Committee for Emergency and Rapid Response of the government designated by the House of Representatives (HoR), Mohammed El Jarih, announced on September 24 that 3,868 people had been officially registered as deaths caused by floods, saying in a press conference that this number would likely increase.
