WHO releasing $2 million from emergency fund for Libya flood victims

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is releasing $2 million from its emergency fund to support the victims of floods in eastern Libya, its director general said on Thursday.

"Even while the death toll is increasing, the health needs of the survivors are becoming more urgent," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Tedros, who described the floods as a "calamity of epic proportions", said WHO was deploying contingency supplies which were already in Libya, as well as sending trauma, surgical and emergency supplies from its logistics hub in Dubai.

Rescue work has been hindered by the political fractures in the country of 7 million people, which has been war on-and-off and lacked a government with nationwide reach since a NATO-backed uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

An internationally recognised Government of National Unity (GNU) is based in Tripoli, in the west. A parallel administration operates in the east, under control of the Libyan National Army of Khalifa Haftar.