Disastrous flooding in Libya has left more than 30,000 people homeless, according to the International Organistion for Migration (IOM) on Wednesday.

The figures referred to the particularly hard-hit port city of Derna alone, the UN organisation said.

Thousands more have lost their homes in cities in the east of the country after two dams broke in eastern Libya near Derna, sweeping entire neighbourhoods into the sea.

Some 10,000 people were missing, and according to the administration in the east of the country, more than 5,000 people have died.

Two rival governments were vying for power in Libya, plagued by unrest in recent years.

One was based in the east, and the other in the capital, Tripoli, in the west.

Meanwhile, the European Union is to provide disaster response equipment and humanitarian funding worth €500,000 ($536,545) to Libya, the European Commission announced on Wednesday.

EU countries Germany, Romania and Finland offered tents, field beds, blankets, 80 generators, food items, hospital tents and water tanks, the commission said.

The humanitarian funding is to go to organisations “operating on the ground to deliver lifesaving health and water and sanitation supplies,” the commission said.

Libya’s representation at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, asked the EU for help on Tuesday after floods killed over 5,000 people, a press release said.

(dpa/NAN)