For years, experts had warned that floods posed a significant danger to two dams protecting nearly 90,000 people in northeastern Libya.
The deluge proved deadly for thousands in just seconds, uprooting apartment buildings and washing away roads and bridges. More than 11,300 people were reported killed, and over 10,000 remained missing a week after the disaster, according to the Libyan Red Crescent and the United Nations.
The dams, Abu Mansour and Derna, were built by a Yugoslav construction company in the 1970s above Wadi Derna, which divides the city. Abu Mansour, 14 kilometers from the city, was 74 meters high and could hold up to 22.5 million cubic meters of water. The Derna dam is much closer to the city and could hold 1.5 million cubic meters of water.
At a news conference in the stricken city, al-Sour said prosecutors would investigate the collapse of the two dams, as well as the allocation of maintenance funds. Arsel was one of dozens of Turkish companies that had projects worth more than $15 billion in Libya before the 2011 uprising. Many of these companies fled the Libya chaos before returning in the past couple of years, especially when the Turkish government stepped in to help the Tripoli-based government fend off an attack by Hifter’s forces in 2019.
As much as a quarter of the city has been erased, emergency officials said. Such devastation reflected the storm’s intensity, but also Libya’s vulnerability. The country’s infrastructure has suffered widespread neglect despite Libya’s oil wealth.
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