Horror in Libya as body of young girl found in flooding aftermath – as UN official warns of cholera outbreak risk
A potential cholera outbreak could add to misery in the Libyan city of Derna, where the sheer number of people dead or unaccounted for after a massive flood is overwhelming survivors.
The number of fatalities has soared to 11,300, according to the Libyan Red Crescent, with a further 10,100 reported missing as hopes of finding survivors diminish.
Two Sky News TV crews witnessed horrific scenes after reaching the eastern port city – including the tragic discovery of the body of a young girl, perhaps aged 10 or 11.
Desperate search for survivors continues – latest updates
Desperate relatives search for survivors. Pic: AP
An aerial view of the Libyan city of Derna. Pic: AP
The United Nations (UN) has warned the country urgently needs equipment to find those trapped in sludge and wrecked buildings – and raised concerns of a cholera outbreak.
“Priority areas are shelter, food, key primary medical care because of the worry of cholera, the worry of lack of clean water,” said UN aid chief Martin Griffiths.
Reports suggest almost a quarter of the city has been washed away and reduced to an apocalyptic wasteland, following a massive flood fed by the breaching of two dams in heavy rains.
More than 38,640 people are displaced in the northeast of the country, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Libya said on Friday.
‘Graveyard’ city smashed by water from ‘dam of death’
Sky’s Africa correspondent Yousra Elbagir, reporting from one of the collapsed dams, said it is now known as “the dam of death“.
Although it has been days since the disaster struck, she said survivors are still in a complete state of shock – with some coming to the site to look at the catastrophe.
“The flood has completely changed their lives,” she said. “One person told me: ‘This is not a natural disaster, this is a catastrophe.'”
Sky News will air a special programme – Libya floods: The city swept away – at midday on Saturday.
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Derna’s ‘dam of death’
Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford, reporting from the centre of Derna, said the city was like “one big graveyard”.
“Everywhere you look here – it’s 360° destruction,” she said. “There is a strong smell in the air of corpses.”
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How the floods cut a swathe through city
“The force of the water was so strong from the two dams which collapsed that the locals say it sounded like an explosion, after explosion, after explosion,” said Crawford.
“Massive tonnes of rocks, whole apartment blocks, were just swept away.
“There are three bridges that have been swept away.
“Building after building has been levelled or smashed through.
“They had – according to those who survived – about 20 minutes to get out of the way of this torrent of water.”
Read more:
Before and after pictures show devastation of Libya floods
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‘Utter devastation’ after torrent’s destruction
‘Someone should pay for these deaths’ after girl’s body found
There was a collective intake of horror when the “unmistakable shape of a small human” was discovered, Crawford added.
It was the body of a young girl – maybe aged 10 or 11.
Witnesses were stunned into silence, she said, describing it as “utterly dreadful”.
Two relief workers raced down with a black body bag and the girl was hurriedly placed inside it.
Entire neighbourhoods have been washed away
The scene at one of the dams that collapsed in heavy rains
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Drone footage shows flood-hit Libya
People searching for relatives say they had plenty of warning about Storm Daniel before it hit.
But what followed was a catastrophic culmination of human errors.
Gandi Mohammed Hammoud, a structural engineer, said it was down to negligence.
He said there had been plenty of warnings from experts about the poor state of the city’s two dams.
“They should have known,” he told Sky News.
Search teams are combing streets, wrecked buildings, and even the sea to look for bodies. Pic: AP
Hopes of finding survivors are fading
Mr Hammoud said he watched as his neighbours and friends screamed in terror as the torrent of water tore apart their homes and flats.
He added: “Someone should pay for these deaths.
“Someone should be held accountable for what happened here.”
Officials have warned unexploded ordnances – remnants of war such as unexploded bombs, mines, shells and grenades – pose a risk for those involved in recovering the dead.
The aftermath of the floods
Derna has been the worst-affected
Rescuers have been sifting through the wreckage
‘Bodies are littering the streets’
Most of the dead have been buried in mass graves outside Derna, while others are being transferred to nearby towns and cities.
“Bodies are littering the streets, washing back on shore and are buried under collapsed buildings and debris. In just two hours, one of my colleagues counted over 200 bodies on the beach near Derna,” said Bilal Sablouh, regional forensics manager for Africa for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The ICRC has sent a cargo flight to Benghazi with 5,000 body bags.
Rescue and relief operations have also been complicated by political divides in the country, which has been at war since a 2011 uprising toppled long-ruling dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Despite a 2020 ceasefire ending most major warfare, territory remains controlled by rival armed factions.
An internationally recognised Government of National Unity (GNU) is based in Tripoli, in the west, while a parallel administration operates in the east, including Derna.
“The instability, poor governance, corruption and mafia-style politicking, including a network of people-smuggling gangs, have all conspired to make this tragedy,” Crawford added.
Tom Fletcher, speaking on behalf of the United Nations, did not mince his words.
Gaza was suffering from famine, the evidence was irrefutable and Israel had not just obstructed aid but had also used hunger as a weapon of war.
His anger seeped through every sentence, just as desperation is laced through the report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
Gaza latest: UK calls out Israel for ‘manmade catastrophe’
Conditions are expected to worsen, it says, even though the Gaza Strip has been classified as a level 5 famine. There is no level 6.
A child attempts to access food from a charity kitchen in Khan Younis. Pic: Reuters
But it took only moments for the Israeli government to respond in terms that were just as strident. The report dismissed as wholly inaccurate, based on biased, inaccurate data and influenced not by fact, but by the whims of Hamas.
COGAT, the Israeli agency that oversees humanitarian efforts in Gaza, claimed the IPC had ignored its data and presented a “one-sided report”, before claiming that “hundreds of truckloads of aid are still awaiting collection by the UN and international organisations”.
What is so striking is that there is no grey area between these two versions.
In one, Israel has obstructed the delivery of aid and allowed hunger to turn into famine; in the other, it is Hamas that has caused the crisis by stealing aid and exploiting hunger as a political tool to try to win global sympathy.
People in Beit Lahia take sacks of flour from an aid convoy en route to Gaza City. Pic: AP
Journalists are not allowed to enter Gaza, so we are reliant on the work of colleagues who live there.
But the images are striking – emaciated people holding begging bowls, people scrambling towards aid drops or clambering over trucks carrying bags of flour. And all around them, shattered buildings.
Aid is continuing to be dropped by air, but humanitarian groups say it is not enough. Pic: Reuters
We heard from a man in his 70s, who used to weigh 70kg, but who has lost almost half his body weight.
“Now, because of malnutrition, my weight has dropped to just 40,” Hassan Abu Seble said. “I suffered both a stroke and a heart attack. They had to put in a stent to help me recover, and I thank God that my organs are still functioning.”
The Israeli government, and many across the country, will maintain that Hamas bears the responsibility for everything that has happened to Gazans – that it was the attack on 7 October, 2023, that was the sole precipitant for the suffering, death and hunger that has followed.
But from around much of the rest of the world, the condemnation is deafening, accusing Israel of allowing famine to fester.
The body of a child is carried from the scene of an Israeli military strike in Gaza City. Pic: AP
David Lammy, Britain’s foreign secretary, said the Israeli government had caused a “man-made famine” by blocking the distribution of aid, and described that as a “moral outrage”.
The question, as so often before, is what that rhetoric leads to. And, so long as the United States doesn’t join the chorus of disapproval, does widespread global disapproval mean anything?
There is also a question now of Gaza’s future.
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In the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, we found a large sign that says “Make Gaza Jewish Again”. It is a slogan, and a sentiment, that is supported by plenty.
“Yes, of course I agree,” says one man as he walks past, carrying a large pack of drinks. It turns out that he used to live in a Jewish settlement in Gaza until it was shut by the Israeli government two decades ago, but he has never stopped believing that Gaza is rightly Israel’s property.
“The people there now – they should leave. They could go to Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt. It is our land. And yes, I would like to go back there.”
He did not believe there was a famine. “They have lots of food,” he told me.
Another man, Avraham, was more conciliatory, but insisted there had never been a country like Israel “that is fighting a war against a country but is also sending in so much humanitarian aid for the people”.
Gaza City is now the focal point of so much. Famine is spreading from this heart just as troops prepare to encircle the city. A ceasefire could come, but so could a huge military assault. And all the while, the hunger will get worse.
Approval of a huge new Chinese embassy in London has been delayed by the government over redacted areas on the embassy’s plans.
Beijing hasn’t fully explained why there are blacked-out areas in its planning application after housing minister Angela Rayner demanded an explanation earlier this month.
The government has now delayed its decision over whether construction can go ahead from 9 September to 21 October, saying it needed more time to consider the application.
The Chinese embassy in London expressed “serious concern” over the delay and said host countries have an “international obligation” to support the construction of diplomatic buildings.
“The Chinese side urges the UK side to fulfil its obligation and approve the planning application without delay,” said the embassy in a statement.
Site of planned Chinese embassy
Royal Mint Court, the site of the proposed embassy. File pic: PA
DP9, the planning consultancy working for the Chinese government, said its client felt it would be inappropriate to provide full internal layout plans.
It added that additional drawings provided an acceptable level of detail, after the government asked why several areas were blacked out.
Protests have been held outside the proposed site. File pic: Feb 2025, PA
“The Applicant considers the level of detail shown on the unredacted plans is sufficient to identify the main uses,” said DP9 in a letter to the government.
“In these circumstances, we consider it is neither necessary nor appropriate to provide additional more detailed internal layout plans or details.”
The embassy, which would be the largest in Europe, is planned for the 216-year-old site of the old Royal Mint Court next to the Tower of London.
However, opposition from local residents, lawmakers and pro-democracy campaigners means planning approval has been delayed for the past three years.
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Earlier this month, the embassy described claims that the building could have “secret facilities” used to harm Britain’s
national security as “despicable slandering”.
However, the executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which has ties to a network of politicians critical of the country, called the explanations “far from satisfactory”.
Luke de Pulford, who is a long-standing critic of the embassy plans, said the “assurances amount to ‘trust me bro'”.
A famine has been declared in Gaza City and the surrounding neighbourhoods.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – a globally recognised system for classifying the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition – has confirmed just four famines since it was established in 2004.
These were in Somalia in 2011, and in Sudan in 2017, 2020, and 2024.
The confirmation of famine in Gaza City is the IPC’s first outside of Africa.
“After 22 months of relentless conflict, over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death,” the report said, adding that more than a million other people face a severe level of food insecurity.
Israel Gaza map
Over the next month conditions are also expected to worsen, with the famine projected to expand to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, the report said.
Nearly a third of the population (641,000 people) are expected to face catastrophic conditions while acute malnutrition is projected to continue getting worse rapidly.
Over the next year, the report said at least 132,000 children will suffer from acute malnutrition – double the organisation’s estimates from May 2024.
Israel says no famine in Gaza
Volker Turk, the UN Human Rights chief, said the famine is the direct result of actions taken by the Israeli government.
“It is a war crime to use starvation as method of warfare, and the resulting deaths may also amount to the war crime of wilful killing,” he said.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, has rejected the findings.
Israel’s foreign ministry said there is no famine in Gaza: “Over 100,000 trucks of aid have entered Gaza since the start of the war, and in recent weeks a massive influx of aid has flooded the Strip with staple foods and caused a sharp decline in food prices, which have plummeted in the markets.”
Another UN chief made a desperate plea to Israel’s prime minister to declare a ceasefire in the wake of the famine announcement.
Tom Fletcher, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said famine could have been prevented in the strip if there hadn’t been a “systematic obstruction” of aid deliveries.
“My ask, my plea, my demand to Prime Minister Netanyahu and anyone who can reach him. Enough. Ceasefire. Open the crossings, north and south, all of them,” he said.
The IPC had previously warned famine was imminent in parts of Gaza, but had stopped short of a formal declaration.
Palestinians struggle to get aid at a community kitchen in Gaza City. Pic: AP
The latest report on Gaza from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says there were almost 13,000 new admissions of children for acute malnutrition recorded in July.
The latest numbers from the Gaza health ministry are 251 dead as a result of famine and malnutrition, including 108 children.
But Israel has previously accused Hamas of inflating these figures, saying that most of the children who died had pre-existing health conditions.
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