Libya: State of emergency in Mizda and hospital evacuated following floods in the west of the country

Torrential rains fell during the night of Thursday, September 24 to Friday, September 25, 2026, on several cities in western Libya, causing floods, landslides, and power outages, reports La Presse de Tunisie.

The most affected areas are located in the Jebel Gharbi region and in sectors southwest of Tripoli. Water levels rose critically in wadis and residential neighborhoods, cutting off roads and trapping residents in their homes.

A hospital completely evacuated

The Nesma hospital, in Jebel Gharbi, was "totally evacuated" on the morning of September 25, 2026, according to La Presse de Tunisie: patients, residents, and medical and administrative staff were sheltered in homes after rainwater torrents invaded the facility.

In Mizda, a town of fewer than 30,000 inhabitants located about 165 kilometers south of Tripoli, the municipality declared a state of emergency. The collapse of numerous utility poles caused a general power outage, indicated municipal spokesperson Omar Kachaka, as cited by the same media outlet. Homes were surrounded by water, residents found themselves trapped in mudslides or in their vehicles, and material damage is described as significant. The Mizda hospital admitted several people affected by the bad weather, though their condition was not specified.

The authorities' response

The head of the Government of National Unity, Abdelhamid Dbeibah, ordered the relevant services to mobilize all their resources without delay, to clear roads, and to restore essential services, according to the government statement relayed by La Presse de Tunisie.

Local authorities and civil defense have renewed their calls for vigilance, asking residents to stay away from wadi beds and low-lying areas. No consolidated human toll has been communicated at this stage.

What these floods reveal

Beyond the meteorological event, these floods raise a question of infrastructure: fragile electrical grids, insufficient urban drainage, and housing built near wadis that can fill up in a few hours. These are vulnerabilities shared by many cities in the Maghreb and the Sahel, which are exposed to increasingly brutal rains on dry soil incapable of absorbing the water.

The protection of populations depends less on forecasting than on maintenance: dikes, pipelines, warning systems, and evacuation plans. These are all projects that, in Libya, require institutions capable of long-term planning.