Libya prosecutor orders arrest of 8 over dam disaster

Libya's prosecutor general on Monday ordered the arrest of eight officials suspected of negligence that resulted in two dam breaks that killed nearly 4,000 people in Derna city.

The officials are suspected of "bad management" and negligence, a statement from Al-Seddik al-Sur's office said, adding that they served currently or previously in offices responsible for water resources and dam management.

The flash flood, which witnesses likened to a tsunami, broke through two ageing dams on 10 September after a hurricane-strength storm lashed the area around Derna, a port city in Libya's east, causing the reservoirs to overflow and break.

On Saturday, the official death toll passed 3,800, and international aid groups have said 10,000 or more people may be missing.

After opening a probe, Libya's prosecutor general  said more than a week ago that the two dams upstream from Derna dad been cracked since 1998.

But repairs begun by a Turkish company in 2010 were suspended after a few months when Libya's 2011 revolution flared, and the work never resumed, the prosecutor said on 16 September, vowing to deal firmly with those responsible.

Wall of water

The first dam to collapse in the disaster was the Abu Mansur dam, 13 kilometers from Derna, whose reservoir held 22.5 million cubic meters of water.

The deluge 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.

The wall of water and debris swept through the normally dry riverbed or wadi that cuts through the city center.

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 Libya's 2011 revolution, 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.

WITH AFP