Libyan judicial authorities reported this Monday, September 25, that they arrested a total of eight officials, including the mayor of Derna, within the framework of the investigation they are continuing into the tragic floods that broke out on September 10. The flooding left thousands dead and missing, after two dams broke after the passage of Cyclone Daniel.
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The Libyan Prosecutor’s Office imposed an arrest warrant on eight Derna officials, regarding the investigation carried out by the Public Ministry, in the case of the rupture of two dams that caused tragic floods in the city, in the middle of the cyclone. Daniel.
According to the Justice Department, the officials were “arrested on suspicion of mismanagement and negligence and currently work or have worked in offices in charge of water resources and dam management.”
Among those detained, according to the office of the attorney general, Al Seddik Al Sour, based in the capital, Tripoli, are the mayor of Derna, Abdulmonem Al Ghaithi, and an official in charge of water resources.
This measure is in addition to that taken by the Eastern Executive, appointed by Parliament, which dismissed the Derna municipal council last week and began an investigation against its members.
The judicial measures were taken after popular pressure and demands from residents to clarify the facts. On Monday, September 18, a massive demonstration took place in front of the Al Sahaba mosque in the center of Derna, and they chanted slogans against the authorities. In the midst of the protests, the town’s mayor’s house was burned down.
According to Libyan Justice, the breach of a maintenance and repair contract for the dams, which was signed in 2007, is being investigated. This contract, according to Reuters, was signed in the midst of the civil war that began with the NATO-backed uprising. who overthrew Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
According to the AFP agency, in 1998 the dam management in Libya had already detected cracks in the two affected dams and the pertinent repairs were never made.
Thousands of dead, missing and an unresolved political conflict
On the night of September 10, in the middle of Cyclone Daniel, two dams, built to contain the flow of the Wadi Derna river that runs through the city, broke, flooding the coastal city of Derna, where around 100,000 people lived before the tragic incident. event.
The city was destroyed, with hundreds of buildings collapsed, thousands of dead and missing, who to date have not yet been identified.
Local authorities estimate around 20,000 victims, including dead and missing. However, the Libyan Ministry of Health has confirmed about 3,800 deaths so far, after counting the bodies that were found and buried.
Meanwhile, local and international rescue teams continue their efforts to recover bodies under the rubble, with virtually no hope of finding survivors.
This tragic scenario occurred in the middle of a divided country, with serious friction between the central government and a rival administration that controls the east of the country and does not recognize the authorities in Tripoli.
In the demonstrations of the citizens of Derna, organized last week, people demanded the unification of Libya, administratively divided between the Government of National Unity (GUN) in the west, and a parallel Executive in the east, controlled militarily by Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
With Reuters, EFE and AFP
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