One year after Derna disaster, compensation and reconstruction raise questions

Libya's Derna commemorated the first anniversary of the Mediterranean storm that ravaged the city and the Green Mountains region in eastern Libya, as questions and doubts continue to hover over the circumstances of the tragedy and the reconstruction efforts undertaken so far. 

As the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aguila Saleh, and the Director General of the Libyan Development and Reconstruction Fund, Belgacem Khalifa Haftar, inaugurate a series of projects, controversy continues over the progress made by the authorities in eastern Libya to compensate victims and rebuild the destroyed areas, as well as the accountability of those responsible for the disaster. 

On 10 September 2023, extreme rainfall caused by hurricane-force Storm Daniel caused two dams to burst in the coastal city of Derna, some 1,300 kilometres east of the capital Tripoli.

This caused flooding that killed more than 5,000 people, left thousands missing and displaced more than 40,000 people, according to the United Nations. 

The tragedy sent shock waves across the oil-rich North African country, shining a harsh light on Libya's crumbling infrastructure and dysfunction among its divided rulers, and sparking angry demands for accountability. 

Libya still faces the consequences of the armed conflict and political chaos that followed the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled long-time ruler Muammar Gadhafi. 

Derna, once home to some 120,000 people, has become a huge construction zone where homes, schools, roads and bridges are being rebuilt. 

‘The slow recovery and lack of a national response plan are having a severe effect on the economic rights of survivors, including rights to housing, health, electricity and education,’ Human Rights said in a report released this week. 

‘Flood survivors said they face obstacles to obtaining fair compensation and reconstruction support amid a political stalemate, which severely limits the ability of displaced people to return home,’ it said. 

The massive reconstruction effort is underway without any oversight by the Tripoli authorities. 

In February, the speaker of the eastern administration's parliament, Aguila Saleh, announced the creation of a reconstruction fund headed by Belgacem Haftar, one of the strongman's six sons.

In doing so, parliament gave Haftar a ‘financial carte blanche’ worth 10 billion dinars (2.1 billion dollars), said Libyan analyst Anas El Gomati. 

‘It is a blank cheque without any supervision,’ added Gomati, who heads the Sadeq Institute think tank. 

Reconstruction should be overseen by UN agencies and local elected officials who would ‘prioritise needs, merit and anti-corruption measures,’ he said. 

Instead, it is being carried out by ‘an impenetrable institution where billions disappear,’ Gomati said. 

The Haftars ‘are not rebuilding Derna, they are building their political launch pads,’ the analyst said. 

‘Every brick laid in Derna is another step in their succession plan,’ he added, referring to Haftar's sons. 

Belgacem Haftar is the leading figure in the reconstruction of Derna and, unlike his brothers Saddam and Khaled, has no military role. 

He could use his position to ‘establish a political position nationally and internationally’, said Jalel Harchaoui, a Libya expert at the Britain-based Royal United Services Institute. 

And, overall, Haftar could use his political clout to demonstrate that the UN-recognised government in Tripoli is ‘ineffective and superfluous’, he added. 

Last week, during a visit to southern Libya, Belgacem Haftar claimed that 70 per cent of reconstruction projects in Derna had been completed. 

He said 3,500 houses have been rebuilt, while maintenance work has been carried out on the city's power grid and schools. 

Officials say they have also made some progress in court cases against those responsible for the disaster. 

In late July, 12 unnamed public officials were sentenced to prison terms ranging from nine to 27 years for their role in managing the collapsed dams. 

The two dams were built in the 1970s by a Yugoslav company, but received little maintenance work despite being allocated a budget. 

High-ranking officials, such as the mayor of Derna, who is Saleh's nephew, were not investigated. 

The mayor's house was burned down after the floods during angry protests by demonstrators demanding accountability from the authorities in the east.

‘Only an independent investigation into all aspects of the Derna calamity can shed light on the authorities‘ responsibility for the dam collapse and the key role that armed groups played in managing the response that resulted in such a high death toll,’ said Hanan Salah, Middle East and North Africa associate director at Human Rights Watch. 

Families of the victims also questioned the death toll announced by authorities in the east. 

Authorities have said about 3,800 people died in the floods, based on the number of bodies buried, but families believe many more died. It is estimated that at least 5,000 people died. 

According to Gomati, a death toll of ‘between 14,000 and 24,000’ is more plausible. 

So far, ‘10,000 DNA samples have been collected from people still searching for their loved ones,’ he said. 

Authorities in the east have been ‘downplaying the number of dead (to) minimise their culpability’, Gomati said.