At least 150 people were killed when freak floods hit eastern Libya, officials said on Monday, after storm Daniel swept the Mediterranean, its torrential rains earlier lashing Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece. Hamad’s government – which in war-battered Libya rivals a UN-brokered, internationally recognised transitional administration in Tripoli – on Monday declared Derna a “disaster area”. The National Petroleum Company, whose main oilfields and terminals are in eastern Libya, declared “a state of maximum alert” and suspended flights between production sites where activity was drastically reduced. The storm struck eastern Libya on Sunday afternoon, hitting especially the coastal town of Jabal al-Akhdar but also Benghazi, where a curfew was declared and schools closed for several days. In neighbouring Egypt , authorities called for caution on the northern coast which borders eastern Libya, and announced they were beginning preparations to minimise the impact of Storm Daniel.

Source: Libya Today September 11, 2023 15:55 UTC