In the Libyan town of Derna, the sea breeze mixes with the nauseating smell of bodies buried under the rubble. Ten days after the deadly floods, relatives of the missing wait in anguish to learn their fate, without having any illusions.
Survivors say that the bodies are “everywhere”: under the rubble and under a thick layer of mud that the waves left behind, after carrying away everything in their path. Others were carried by the flood towards the Mediterranean which threw hundreds back.
According to an official report that is still provisional, the tragedy left more than 3,300 dead, but the authorities and international humanitarian organizations fear a much higher toll due to the number of missing people, who number in the thousands.
Mohamad Badr is busy cleaning his house drowned in mud in one of the disaster areas of Derna, but stops at times to talk about his neighbors and his missing relatives.
“The Bouzid family, the Fachiani family, the al-Khalidi family, these are entire families. There is no one left,” this 23-year-old man told AFP, his hands and clothes stained with mud.
He returned home with six workers to try to save what remained of the family’s furniture and belongings.
On the roof of his house, Mohamad Badr sorts: sofas, cushions, clothes, a treadmill, chairs, curtains, electrical equipment. “God knows if they still work,” he said.
Emotion overtakes him when he recounts how he miraculously survived on the night of September 10 after being surrounded by water for hours.
“I heard a lot of screaming. It was neighbors who had screamed until they died. It was dark and there was no one” to help them.
He claims to have experienced “more than one nightmare” that night.
“My brother died after bleeding for hours from an arm injury caused by a falling object,” without anyone being able to help him.
When the floods invaded the family home, Mohamad Badr clung to the air conditioner. The water continued to rise, leaving only a small space under the roof to keep his head above water.
He almost drowned when the air conditioner broke, but he was able to hold on to a floating couch.
He waited for hours before the water level, which left traces still visible on the walls, began to fall.
His parents, his sister-in-law and his three children survived, but he has no news of his uncles and their families. Thirty-two in total. The building where they lived has collapsed and its rubble is inaccessible.
“Their bodies were perhaps found and no one was able to identify them. Over time, we no longer recognize the features,” he confides.
During the first days, rescue teams and volunteers hastily buried hundreds of bodies in mass graves without identifying them, lamented the authorities, who say they began collecting DNA samples from the victims in the hope of be able to know their identity later.
In another part of the city, Mahmoud Erqiq, 50, offers drinking water and refreshments to rescue workers.
With misty eyes, he lists the names of neighboring families of whom he has no news. “The Karaz family, the Bou Chatila family, the Ghariani family, the Snidel family, the Tashani family…”
The day after the floods, “I recovered 20 bodies in my neighborhood,” he says.
Mahmoud’s apartment, located on an upper floor, was spared, but he lost his “source of livelihood”, he laments, pointing to the location of the workshop, completely destroyed, in which he worked as a lathe milling.
Next to him, Miloud Boussertia, 40, visibly still in shock, said he had lost 25 members of his family. “Our building collapsed. There were 25 people inside and they all died,” says the man, who was not at home when the tragedy occurred.
He claims to have lost “up to 70” of his loved ones elsewhere in the city. “We still have people missing.”
Miloud Boussertia remains permanently alongside the rescue teams.
“As soon as they find a body, we come and open the body bag,” he said. “But now the features are no longer recognizable.”
20/09/2023 13:37:07 – Derna (Libye) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
