3,297 Still Missing After 2023 Libya’s Derna Floods

(MENAFN) Nearly two years after catastrophic floods devastated the eastern city of Derna, Libya’s General Authority for the Search and Identification of Missing Persons has officially confirmed that 3,297 people remain unaccounted for — marking the first formal accounting of the missing.

The announcement was delivered by agency head Kamal al-Siwi during a press briefing in Tripoli, according to a post shared on the U.S.-based platform Facebook.

“We have recorded 3,297 missing people from the victims of Storm Daniel, which struck the city of Derna,” Al-Siwi stated.

He added that roughly 3,078 DNA reference samples had been collected and fully analyzed by the authority’s laboratories. The agency has now established a comprehensive genetic database for victims and has started cross-referencing bone fragments from unidentified remains.

Storm Daniel made landfall on September 10, 2023, lashing eastern Libya and causing deadly floods across cities including Benghazi, Al Bayda, Al Marj, and Susah. Derna bore the brunt of the disaster after the failure of the Al-Bilad and Abu Mansour dams, which unleashed a torrent from Wadi Derna that obliterated vast swathes of the city.

Official death tolls put the number of fatalities at 4,540 — including 3,964 Libyans and 576 foreign nationals.

Until now, no official estimate of the missing had been released.

In the days following the catastrophe, 12 countries — Türkiye, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Tunisia, Algeria, Malta, Italy, Spain, and France — mobilized aid to support Libya’s emergency response.

On July 28, 2024, the Derna Criminal Court handed down prison sentences ranging from 9 to 27 years to 12 officials found responsible for the dam failures, according to Attorney General Al-Siddiq Al-Sour.

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