According to the Libyan attorney general’s office, the mayor of the eastern city of Derna has been detained alongside other officials on suspicion of carelessness and poor management in connection with the sudden collapse of dams that flooded the city two weeks ago.
Thousands of people were killed when dams collapsed during a storm, releasing a flood that swept entire neighborhoods into the Mediterranean. The attorney general’s office, situated in the capital Tripoli, claimed it had given orders to hold eight municipal authorities.
It stated without naming them that the mayor and a representative in charge of water resources were among those detained.
Angry citizens have accused the government of being responsible for the dams’ collapse, which were constructed to control the flow into the city’s seasonal riverbed.
Due to the civil conflict that started with the NATO-backed revolt that deposed Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, a contract from 2007 to restore the dams was never finished. Up until 2019, fighters from a number of factions, including Islamic State, held authority over Derna.
After protesters set fire to the mayor’s residence last week, the government in the east of the country announced that he had been suspended and that the entire city council had been fired.
A large number of individuals are still missing and many more have been reported killed as a result of the flooding, and entire structures have been washed into the ocean. While the chances of discovering survivors are dwindling, international rescue teams continue to search for bodies in the city’s harbor and under the wreckage.
The flood and rescue operations have also brought to light tensions between the Tripoli-based central government and a parallel administration that rules the country’s eastern region but does not recognize Tripoli’s rule.
