Some families in Derna were wiped out, historic legacies washed out

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Wall Street Journal
27 Sep 2023 13:05
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The tragedy of Derna's floods left behind thousands of dead bodies, while some clans noted losing over 130 of their members.

Rescue teams look for flash flood victims in the city of Derna, Libya, on Sept. 18, 2023. (AP)

“It feels like the legacy of the Al Hassadi family has been wiped out,” said Derna-based Moataz Al Hassadi who has been hosting 27 relatives in his home on the western side of the city. The judgment day-like floods that drowned Libya's Derna have claimed the lives of at least 6,000 with over 10,000 still missing in a city of a population of approximately 100,000 people according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The Al Hassadi clan, as per the report, has a particularly rich past, with many members considered particularly well-off, well-known philanthropists, and owners of historic and modern houses in Derna's center.

According to reports, the Al Hassadi family established the "city's main market in the 1950s, with several shops selling wheat, clothing, and spices." Abdullah Al Hassadi, a member of the clan, said "My ancestral grandfather, whom we call Hamza, set up the Al Hassadi trading agency in the center of the city."

According to the WSJ, the people of Derna feared that not only was the city's historic identity and its resident's ancestral legacy destroyed as physical monuments were destroyed, but they even further feared that entire families were wiped out completely.

Nabil Al Hassadi, a distant cousin of Abdullah, underscored that if his count is correct, about 131 Al Hassadi members have been, until this moment, confirmed dead.

The Al Hassidi clan has not been the only one to face this fate as the Al Tashani, who alongside Al Hassidi, have come to Derna at the end of the Spanish inquisition, around the 15th century.

It was during the Spanish Inquisition at the end of the 15th century that the ancestors of Al Hassadi, Al Tashani, and other Andalusians migrated to Morocco and Libya.

Relatives believed that over 100 Al Tashini members were killed as a result of the flood. In turn, Gaith Al Tashani, who had left the port city of Derna alongside the only surviving members of his 22-member family, his sister, and niece, said that they could no longer handle the pain of condolences which would continue to pour in as long as they remained in the city.

The 33-year-old health ministry administrator stated, “Derna for me is over, like a book I’ve closed.”