Libya disputed PM Dbeibah allocates $446 million for Benghazi, Derna reconstruction

Disputed Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah announced on Tuesday the allocation of two billion dinars ($446.4 million) for the reconstruction of Benghazi and Derna in eastern Libya, following the catastrophic destruction caused by Storm Daniel.

Dbeibah, who heads the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU)  instructed the Transportation Projects Implementation Agency to "contract with specialized international companies to reconstruct concrete culverts and maintain a number of bridges in the affected areas in the east of the country," the official Hokomitna (Our Government) platform reported.

Al-Hussein Sweidan, head of the roads and bridges department in the Tripoli-based GNU, told Anadolu that Derna’s road and bridge network had “completely collapsed. Suweidan estimated that the reconstruction cost would be in the region of 300 million dinars ($67 million).

Benghazi and Derna are both under the control of a rival eastern Libya based administration which challenges Dbeibah's authority and is allied with General Khalifa Haftar, a Gaddafi-era military commander who leads the self-styled 'Libyan National Army' (LNA).

A total of 3,060 people were killed, and 5,200 others have gone missing in the Libyan city of Derna after heavy floods swept the eastern part of the country on Sunday, Libya's eastern-based Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.

The death toll from catastrophic floods caused by the freak storm is expected to soar dramatically, with thousands still unaccounted for.