'We need a state': anger among Libya flood survivors

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.

A tsunami-sized flash flood crashed through the Mediterranean city, razing entire neighbourhoods, after two upstream dams burst amid torrential rains on September 10.

"Two years ago, the big dam already had leaks, even though it was only half full," Abdelqader al-Omrani, 48, told AFP from his hospital bed in Benghazi, the major city in the eastern part of Libya.

"We had warned the municipality and demanded repairs," Omrani said, charging that the local authorities now "have our deaths on their conscience".

Omrani said that when his house, located close to one of the dams, was rapidly submerged late at night, he fled onto the roof terrace, then climbed onto a tree and scrambled up a mountain slope.

He said he later saw the lifeless bodies of six relatives amid the utter devastation of his hometown.

When the muddy waters finally receded, there were "no buildings, no trees, only the mountain and no living soul," he said, choking back tears.

"I experienced the apocalypse, without exaggeration."

Another patient, Ezzedine Miftah, 32, voiced similar anger, blaming official negligence for the disaster in which more than 3,300 bodies have been recovered and thousands more remain missing.

Speaking through his oxygen mask, Miftah said that "those in charge did not do their job and let the dams burst".

In Derna, rescue crews have pushed on with the grim task of digging out bodies and clearing the rubble in what, more than a week later, has turned into a dusty wasteland.

The remains of the dead, retrieved from shattered buildings and washed up on the seashore, have been buried in mass graves.

On Monday, several hundred protesters rallied at the city's main mosque mosque and accused the authorities of neglect, later torching the home of the mayor.

The outburst of public anger prompted the head of eastern Libya's administration, Osama Hamad, to dissolve Derna's municipal council.

The diaster has been blamed on the weather conditions that turned Storm Daniel into a hurricane-strength extreme weather event -- but also on the impact Libya's years of war and chaos have had on critical infrastructure, early-warning systems and emergency response.

The oil-rich country was hurled into turmoil after a NATO-backed uprising led to the overthrow and killing of dictator Moamer Kadhafi, followed by years of fighting between militias, mercenaries and jihadists, who at one stage controlled Derna.

Libya is now split between two rival centres of power: the UN-recognised government based in Tripoli in the west, and an eastern administration backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.

The flood disaster sparked a new sense of national solidarity and stepped up cooperation on the emergency relief effort.

"After all the deaths, the country is finally united, everyone has rushed to help us," Omrani said, adding that Derna was now "a cause to defend".