UN highlights lack of progress one year on from Libya's deadly Derna floods

Thousands were killed and many more are unaccounted for after Storm Daniel swept in

Graves of flood victims recovered by Libya's National Authority for the Search and Identification of the Missing, in a cemetery in the eastern port city of Derna. AFP

Rebuilding a neighbourhood in Derna hit by flooding that killed more than 4,500 people when two dams collapsed in heavy rain on September 10, 2023. AFP

A lab technician gathers a sample from remains for DNA identification and genetic matching in Tripoli. AFP

Construction work on a bridge in Derna. AFP

Libya's eastern city of Derna on September 18 last year after deadly flash floods.

Destroyed buildings in Libya's Derna after flash floods. All Photos: AFP

The ruins at the site of the ancient Greco-Roman city of Cyrene in eastern Libya, about 60km west of Derna, on September 21, last year. AFP

A destroyed vehicle lies on the seashore as waves break in Derna on September 19, last year.

Damage in the aftermath of a flood in Derna on September 16 last year.

People sit among the rubble in Derna.

Much of the city of Derna was destroyed in flash floods.

Thousands were killed and entire neighbourhoods were razed

People survey the damage from the floods in Derna last year.

The Libyan Public Prosecution Authority said it found that “negligence” led to the collapse of the Bilad and Sidi Bou Mansour dams above the coastal city following heavy rains brought by Hurricane Daniel.

Left; an overview of Derna before the flash floods on September 7, last year and, right, during the flash floods on September 12 last year.

Several cities, including Benghazi, Al Bayda, Al Marj and Sousse, were affected by heavy flooding

Many people were buried under mud or washed out to sea.

Buildings were destroyed in flash floods last year.

It has been exactly a year since Storm Daniel hit Libya’s eastern coastal city of Derna, destroying two of its dams and causing the country's worst flooding in more than a century, killing thousands and damaging infrastructure, homes, hospitals and roads.

But despite some efforts to rebuild since the disaster, a lot more is needed to restore a sense of normality to the area, the UN has warned.

“In the last year, you can see that there has been a lot of reconstruction. There is still some rubble and debris that needs to be cleared. Much has been done but more needs to be done,” UN resident and humanitarian co-ordinator in Libya, Georgette Gagnon, said in a video published on X on Tuesday following a visit to Derna and other affected areas.

Ms Gagnon described the natural disaster as tragic and underscored the need for affected families “to regain their lives”.

During a visit to Derna on Monday, Stephanie Khoury, charge d’affaires of the UN's mission in Libya, reaffirmed the importance of reconstruction.

She called on the Benghazi and Tripoli authorities to put aside their differences and “work together in the best interests of the affected people and to ensure transparency, oversight and accountability in reconstruction efforts”, she said on X.

The storm was one of Africa’s deadliest natural disasters in modern history.

The UN estimates Storm Daniel – which led to the bursting of the Bilad and Sidi Bou Mansour dams after an unprecedented 400mm of rain was recorded in 24 hours – killed more than 5,000 people, left thousands uncounted for and displaced at least 40,000 others. The cities of Benghazi, Al Bayda, Al Marj and Sousse were also affected.

An aerial view of devastation after the floods in Derna, Libya on September 18, 2023. Getty Images

On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch issued a report which condemned authorities’ failure to ensure accountability and inadequate relief and support efforts on the ground.

“Displaced residents from Derna and other eastern Libyan towns, whose lives were upended after the calamity, face burdensome and often impossible hurdles accessing any kind of state support,” Hanan Salah, associate Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in the report.

The rights group said it has spoken to at least 16 survivors, who are currently displaced in the western city of Misurata and complained of dire living conditions and the challenges they continue to face to obtain government support.

A family member grieving at the gravestone of one of the Derna victims. AFP

The two dams were built in the 1970s by a Yugoslavian company – mainly using rock, clay and concrete – to control seasonal floods. The structures have reportedly not been maintained since 2002, Derna deputy mayor Ahmed Madroud said shortly after the disaster.

On a visit to affected areas of Derna last week, Belguacem Haftar, son of Field Marshal Khalifa Hafta, claimed more than 70 per cent of infrastructure in the city had been rebuilt.

“We have completed 2,000 housing units and we are currently preparing 1,500 more,” AFP reported him as saying.

Mr Haftar indicated that maintenance of electricity networks, roads and other vital areas of infrastructure were under way.

Lack of accountability

In July, the attorney general of the Tripoli-based government announced the Derna Criminal Court, which technically it has no control over, had sentenced 12 officials to between nine and 27 years in prison. Charges ranged from negligence to premeditated murder and wasting public money.

Three other accused were ordered to “return money obtained from illicit gains”, while four were acquitted.

Libya is still grappling with the impact of more than 10 years of armed conflict after the overthrow of dictator Muammar Qaddafi’s regime by western-backed forces in 2011.

The country remains locked in a power struggle between two rival governments, one in Tripoli which enjoys the support of the international community and the other in Benghazi under the control of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and his family. It controls the eastern and southern side of the country including vital oilfields and jurisdiction over Derna.

Tarek Megerisi, a Libya analyst and senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told The National there had been no accountability over reconstruction efforts.

“What needs to be done is to have an independent review to see what happened to the reconstruction, the budget allocated to the dam but not actually being spent, and you need to have a proper inquiry on what happened and proper process of restitution to the people who suffered,” he said.

The Benghazi government received a large budget from the central bank for rebuilding Derna but there has been no transparency on spending, he added. “A lot of people do not have answers for family members that disappeared," he said. “The army stopped the health ministry from counting deaths above a certain limit.”