Libya prosecutor general orders arrest of eight officials after flood
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The office of Libya's prosecutor general says the officials are suspected of "bad management" and negligence.
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People look at the damage caused by freak floods in Derna, eastern Libya, on September 11, 2023 (AFP)
Libya's prosecutor general on Monday ordered the arrest of eight officials as part of his inquiry into the recent flood disaster, which claimed the lives of thousands, his office announced.
The flash flood broke through two aging dams on September 10 after a hurricane-strength storm hit the area around Derna, a port city in Libya's east.
The officials are suspected of "bad management" and negligence, a statement from the prosecutor general's office indicated, noting that they served currently or previously in offices responsible for water resources and dam management.
"The mistakes that they made" and their "negligence in the matter of disaster prevention" contributed to the catastrophe, the statement charged.
Derna's Mayor Abdulmonem al-Ghaithi, sacked after the flood, is among the detainees.
On Saturday, the official death toll passed 3,800, and international aid groups have estimated that 10,000 or more people may be missing.
After opening a probe, Libya's prosecutor general Al-Seddik al-Sur said more than a week ago that the two dams upstream from Derna had been cracked since 1998.
But repairs begun by a Turkish company in 2010 were suspended after a few months following Libya's 2011 invasion by NATO, and the work never resumed, the prosecutor said on September 16, vowing to deal firmly with those responsible.
According to his office, the investigation is focused on a dam maintenance contract reached between the Turkish firm and Libya's water department.
The first dam to collapse in the disaster was the Abu Mansur dam, 13 kilometers (eight miles) from Derna, whose reservoir held 22.5 million cubic meters (nearly 800 million cubic feet) of water.
The flood then broke Al Bilad, the second dam, which had a capacity of 1.5 million cubic meters and is just a kilometer from the coastal city.
Both dams were constructed by a Yugoslav company in the 1970s, "not to collect water but to protect Derna from floods," Sour said earlier.
Since the invasion of Libya, a budget has been allocated every year to repair the two dams, but none of the successive governments has undertaken the work, according to an official.
In a 2021 report from the Libyan audit bureau, officials criticized "procrastination" on resuming repair work at the two dams.
In November 2022, engineer and academic Abdel Wanis Ashour warned in a study that a "catastrophe" threatened Derna if the authorities did not carry out maintenance on the dams.
After the flood, hundreds of protesters rallied in Derna on September 18, accusing authorities of neglect and calling for "a speedy investigation and legal action" against those responsible for the disaster.
Protesters later torched the home of Derna's mayor, al-Ghaithi, and the eastern administration dissolved Derna's municipal council.
The prosecutor general's statement said the mayor is suspected of "abuse of power and bad management of funds allocated to city development."
Read more: Flood strengthens Libya's national fabric, volunteers say
