Syrian Family in Damascus Loses 8 Members in Derna Flooding
(AWP) - The Qalaaji family in the Syrian capital, Damascus, has been waiting to receive the death certificates for their brother Firas, his wife and six children who were killed in the flooding that struck the eastern Libyan city of Derna this month.
Mohammed Qalaaji, 47, recollects the hours prior to the flooding and shows video footage of his niece who insisted on praying under the rain, believing it to be a blessing and sign of God’s mercy, before talking to her mother and sisters.
Mohamed said his elder brother Firas had been living in Derna since 2000 where he set up a car repair business. However, he had not visited Syria in years – going back to even before the war there.
“He hadn’t visited Syria for two years before the war or since then. My younger brother joined him [in Libya] to work with him,” he said.
He added that on the night of the catastrophe, Firas’s family climbed up to the roof of the house in the hope of survival while the two brothers returned inside the house to retrieve documents and money – but Firas died under the rubble while flooding swept the younger brother outside.
“He clung to a tree but was rescued later,” Mohamed said.
The Libyan authorities found the body of only one female child from the family and the younger brother is waiting to determine how to get new identification documents.
Meanwhile, the bereaved family back home in Syria still awaits the death certificates.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the Derna flooding has claimed the lives of more than one hundred Syrians, including entire families, while more than a hundred others remain missing.