Libya has been left reeling from the aftermath of Storm Daniel, a hurricane-strength storm that hit the central and eastern Mediterranean over a week ago.

On 11 September, just as Storm Daniel was beginning to wreak havoc on Libyan shores, Elseddik Haftar was in Paris soft-launching a presidential bid.

Per a recent displacement report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), approximately 43,059 Libyans have been forced to flee their homes after severe flooding devastated northeast Libya.

Last week, Storm Daniel pounded Libya, wreaking havoc on the eastern city of Derna, where two neglected, ageing dams gave way upstream, unleashing an estimated 30 million cubic metres (8 billion gallons) of water, and obliterating entire neighbourhoods of the city, home to around 100,000 people.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that a total of 3,958 deaths have been registered in hospitals, according to WHO sources, among which 406 people were immigrants.

Floods that killed thousands in the Libyan city of Derna also inundated one of the country’s premier ancient sites, threatening its UNESCO-listed monuments with collapse, a recent visitor and a leading archaeologist said.

Ten days have passed since Storm Daniel battered the northeastern coastal areas of Libya (10 September), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported yesterday in its routine brief. It said the catastrophic consequences for the affected people and infrastructure are unprecedented.

In a Libyan hospital ward, trauma and grief mix with disbelief and anger among the survivors of the flood disaster that killed untold thousands in the devastated city of Derna.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has expressed concerns about two more dams in Libya, after they were reported to be bearing huge amounts of pressure, following the devastating floods that Libya witnessed earlier this month.

UN agencies warned Monday that Libya’s flood-stricken city of Derna, where thousands were killed a week ago, faces the threat of disease outbreaks that could bring “a second devastating crisis”.