‘Dozens of Syrians missing in catastrophic floods in Libya’

Beirut: A Syrian dentist, a confectioner who made mouthwatering Arabic sweets, a carpenter.

Syrians from all walks of life had left their war-torn country for the Libyan city of Derna over the past years, looking for work and better opportunities.

Now, dozens of them are missing and feared dead after Mediterranean storm Daniel unleashed catastrophic flooding that tore through the coastal city on Sunday night, wreaking destruction and washing entire neighborhoods out to sea.

The death toll has eclipsed 11,000 and more than 10,000 are missing.

Five days on, searchers are still digging through mud and hollowed-out buildings in Derna, looking for bodies.

According to a war monitoring group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 42 Syrians have been confirmed dead in Libya while the real number could be as high as 150.

The victims include both Syrians who were living and working in Libya long term, and Syrian migrants who were using Libya as a transit point in efforts to reach Europe, most often by way of perilous voyages across the Mediterranean Sea, in unsafe boats organized by smugglers. Two years ago, Nisma Jbawi’s 19-year-old son Ammar Kanaan left their home in Syria’s southern province of Daraa one of the epicenters of the 2011 uprising against the govt of Syrian President Bashar Assad. He headed to Libya, where he planned to work and save money to pay Syrian authorities a fee of about $8,000 that would spare him from compulsory military service.

Jbawi said her son last spoke with her on Sunday afternoon.

He told her he would close the sweet shop where he worked and go home because a strong storm was expected. She tried repeatedly to call him on Monday, without success.

His WhatsApp account shows his phone was last online at around 1:30 a.m. Monday.

“We still have hope,” she said, tears choking her up.

As the storm pounded Derna late Sunday, residents said they heard loud explosions when the dams outside city collapsed.