'I expected to die'

Journalists on the ground in Derna say reporting on the flooding disaster has been a harrowing experience and one that has deeply affected people

- Kaamil Ahmed

Early last week, Mohamed Eljabo travelled to the eastern provinces of Libya, passing through Derna, Al Bayda and Sousa. The journalist, who lives in Tripoli, described his reaction to what he saw as "shock beyond comprehension".

"I have visited these cities before and I know them well," he said. "I expected to find these cities. I expected to see the neighbourhoods and towns. But they were gone. Erased. It was horrifying."

A UN report last weekend said the number of people who had died in Derna had passed 11,000, with many thousands more missing or displaced. Few international aid agencies or news reporters have been able to reach the flood-hit area, which is not controlled by the government in Tripoli but by a rival warlord.

The Observer spoke to six journalists who have, between them, narrowly escaped death, experienced the loss of friends and loved ones and reported from places almost wiped off the map.

"The most haunting part of the whole experience was the scar the storm has left on the living," said Eljabo. "When I began working on a report and interacted with survivors, their faces screamed of fear. The horror was in their eyes, their features. There were children crying over the graves of their families and trying to climb into the graves. I have never experienced something as harrowing as this."

Noura Mahmoud al-Haddad, an independent journalist in the city of al-Shahat, 100km from Derna, watched from her windows as the rain came down for almost 24 hours, causing the power to go out and water to fill the streets as high as the second storey of the city's buildings.

"It was a catastrophic night. We almost drowned. I even posted on my Facebook page my end and bid farewell to my family before going to bed. I expected to die with my three children, whom I placed next to me in bed," said Haddad.