2023-09-25 12:46:14
Libya’s attorney general has ordered the temporary detention of eight Libyan officials as part of an investigation into the collapse of two dams that caused the deadly September 10 floods in Derna, his office announced Monday.
The eight persons, who hold or held positions of responsibility within the directorate of water resources or the directorate of dam management in Libya, are suspected of, among other things, “mismanagement” and “negligence”, the statement issued by the prosecutor’s office clarified.
The mayor of Derna, Abdulmonem al-Ghaitiwho was suspended along with the rest of the city council after the tragedy, is among the persons placed in temporary custody.
THE storm “Daniel” struck on the night of September 10 to 11 eastern Libya and especially Derna, a city of 100,000 inhabitants on the coast of the Mediterranean, causing the collapse of two dams and tsunami-sized flood, which swept away everything in its path.
According to the latest official provisional count, the flood claimed the lives of 3,868 peoplewhile the fate of thousands of others is still unknown.
On September 18, hundreds of residents of Derna demonstrated demanding that the authorities be held accountable for the disaster.
The Libyan attorney general Al-Sediq al-Sur had announced on September 15 that an investigation had begun into the circumstances of the tragedy. According to him, the directorate of dams in Libya had pointed out cracks in the two works as early as 1998, but no work had been done to repair them.
Contract with a Turkish company
In the context of the investigation, a contract concluded between Libyan water service and one Turkish company for the maintenance of the two dams and the payment in 2014 to the latter of “disproportionate amounts”, and this “even though (the Turkish company) had violated the commitments provided for in the contract”, according to the announcement of the prosecutor.
In a November 2022 study, Libyan engineer and academic Abdel-Wanis Ashour warned of disaster threatening Derna if the authorities did not proceed with maintenance work of the two dams.
But the warning came to nothing, although Libya, which has the richest oil reserves in Africa, does not lack means.
Source: RES-MPE
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