Libya dam burst: Torrent of frustration unleashed in Derna as flood-hit protesters call for leadership change

Published

2 years ago

September 19, 2023

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The anger in Derna has been brewing for days now. It’s been building ever since the floodwaters dropped.

Even amid the overwhelming grief with a quarter of the city’s population wiped out, the survivors and bereaved families unleashed a torrent of frustration and fury of equal ferocity to the water which punched through Derna.

That fury erupted into loud and angry street protests a week after the devastating flooding – with demonstrators crowding around the city’s Al Sahaba Mosque on Monday night demanding an immediate change in leadership.

A popular political activist led the chants from the foot of the mosque which was itself damaged in the tsunami of water which ripped through the city.

“We want the entire parliament to resign and fresh leaders to take over,” Taha Bobeda told us from the roof of the mosque.

“We want the international community to take a strong stand, and conduct an independent inquiry and ensure the aid to rebuild Derna is distributed honestly.”

His anger was very much mirrored by the crowd of furious residents. They blame negligent and corrupt leaders for failing to invest in maintaining the city’s two dams over four decades.

Men waved Libyan flags and crowded around the mosque roofs shouting for a change of direction for the country.

“We want Libya to be united again,” one said. “We want an end to corruption and our politicians just doing everything for themselves.”

The city’s dams burst under the weight of water accumulated from Storm Daniel and cascaded like a giant wrecking ball on the homes, apartments, shopping malls, schools and businesses below.

The water cut such a swathe through the city that most of the centre was washed away with entire nine-storey apartment blocks lifted off their foundations by its force and at least three bridges weighing hundreds of tonnes were smashed entirely.

An estimated 11,000 are thought to have drowned in the torrent or died after being buried in the sludge and mud which was forced down the valley. A further ten thousand are unaccounted for. The water was so powerful it reached fifteen to twenty metres high in places and carried away vehicles and whole buildings in its path.

Abdul Gabriel lost multiple relatives in the flooding and like so many he wants a complete change of authority.

“Everything is wrong about Libya,” he said.

“The education, health system, military… everything is wrong. No one is listening to the people. We see politicians visiting Paris, Rome, other European cities, spending our money and when we told them about the dam, they told us to stay at home. They told us to stay at home.”

Virtually every resident here has suffered loss of family in the catastrophic flooding, so tempers and emotions are incredibly strong especially as most if not all, believe the tragedy could have been avoided.

This is a city with a history of toppling leaders. It was among the first to demand an end to Colonel Gaddafi’s dictatorship as part of the wave of protests across the Middle East and North Africa known as the Arab Spring in 2011.

Now a renegade Gaddafi general called Khalifa Haftar and his troops are in control of East Libya – while a rival government recognised by the United Nations runs the west of the country.

More than a decade after the NATO military campaign to end Gaddafi’s reign, the country is riddled with corruption and profiteering with many convinced the lack of investment in the dams is because public funds had been misused.

This protest erupted spontaneously, but will it morph into a more coordinated demand for change in Libya?

Hours after it began, the protesters set off to march to the mayor’s house to wreak their own revenge. First they lobbed stones at his empty family home – which is in an area of Derna unaffected by the floods. Then they set off fires inside and chucked out a range of his family’s personal belongings ranging from mattresses to seats and clothing.

Derna residents are already working through the night to rebuild their collapsed roads. Reconstructing the city will cost billions – and what happens to any aid will be key, with Derna residents once again at the forefront of demands for leadership change

World

Zelenskyy demands ‘clear position’ from Trump on ending war

Published

5 hours ago

September 16, 2025

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Zelenskyy demands 'clear position' from Trump on ending war

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for a “clear position” from Donald Trump to stop Vladimir Putin and end the war in Ukraine.

In an exclusive interview with Sky News’ lead world presenter Yalda Hakim, the Ukrainian president said the only way for the fighting to stop was for defined security guarantees to first be put in place.

And that, he said, could only come if Mr Trump was bold.

He told Sky News he hopes UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer would drill into the detail of securing Ukraine’s future with the president during his state visit to Britain this week.

He said: “I very much hope he (Starmer) will be able to have a very specific discussion on the security guarantees of the US for Ukraine.

“Before we end the war, I really want to have all the agreements in place. I want to… have a document that is supported by the US and all European partners. This is very important.

“To make this happen, we need a clear position of President Trump.”

‘Make Putin afraid’

Mr Zelenskyy also urged the US leader to take “strong personal steps” to “stop Putin”, after Mr Trump urged NATO allies to stop buying Russian oil and put tariffs on China to pressure Moscow.

“I believe that the US is strong enough to take decisions of their own,” he said. “I believe Donald Trump can give us air defence systems in quantity and US has enough.

“I’m sure the US can apply enough sanctions in order to hurt the Russian economy, plus Donald Trump has enough force to make Putin afraid of him.

“Europe has already introduced 18 sanctions packages against Russia. And all that’s lacking now is a strong sanctions package from the US.”

His comments came following criticism in his interview with Sky News – at the Presidential Palace in Kyiv – of the recent Trump-Putin summit in Alaska.

He said Mr Trump “gave a lot to Putin” and that “he should have paid more” for it.

“I believe, if it was a trilateral meeting [with Ukraine included], we would have some result,” he added.

Putin ‘testing NATO’, warns Zelenskyy

As news broke that British fighter jets were flying air defence missions over Poland after a Russian drone incursion, Hakim asked the Ukrainian leader what message he thought Putin was sending to Europeans.

“He’s testing NATO,” he said. “He wants to see what NATO is ready for, what they’re capable of, both diplomatically and politically, and how the local population will respond to this.”

“Also, in my opinion, the other message they are sending is, ‘don’t you dare to give Ukraine additional air defence systems, because you might need them yourself.'”

Bristling with frustration – Zelenskyy’s message is clear

Yalda Hakim

Lead world news presenter

@SkyYaldaHakim

Ukraine’s president has a very clear message for Trump – you alone have the power to stop Putin, and the time to act is now.

Meeting with me in Kyiv on the eve of the US president’s state visit to Britain, Zelenskyy bristled with frustration at the failure of the Western powers to ramp up pressure on the Kremlin, even as the Russians escalated their attacks on Ukraine.

Asked if the summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska has proven a mistake, he responded without hesitation that Putin is clearly not paying a price for his actions.

Zelenskyy believes Trump is reluctant to put pressure on Putin because it might jeopardise attempts to end the war.

But the Ukrainian leader argues this isn’t the way to handle the Russian president.

Zelenskyy also argued Trump’s emphasis on getting the Europeans to ratchet up economic pressure – foremost by stopping their purchases of Russian energy and tariffing other buyers like China and India – was understandable, but that the world’s sole superpower shouldn’t wait for others to act.

Trump has called on EU countries to end all Russian oil and gas purchases – and only then will he consider imposing sanctions on Russia.

Mr Trump arrives in the UK today for an unprecedented second state visit, following an invitation from King Charles.

He and First Lady Melania will stay at Windsor Castle and be treated to a flypast by the Red Arrows as well as UK and US F-35 military jets on the east lawn, and a special Beating Retreat military ceremony.

They will also visit Chequers, the prime minister’s official country residence in Buckinghamshire, though details of what they will discuss – and whether it will include the situation in Ukraine – have not been revealed.

World

Face-to-face with Zelenskyy, his frustration with the West is clear

Published

8 hours ago

September 16, 2025

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Face-to-face with Zelenskyy, his frustration with the West is clear

Ukraine’s president has a very clear message for Donald Trump – you alone have the power to stop Vladimir Putin, and the time to act is now.

Meeting with me in Kyiv on the eve of the US president’s state visit to Britain, Volodymyr Zelenskyy bristled with frustration at the failure of the Western powers to ramp up pressure on the Kremlin, even as the Russians escalated their attacks on Ukraine.

Asked if the summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska has proven a mistake, he responded without hesitation that Putin is clearly not paying a price for his actions.

“He should have received a setback in this war and stop. Instead, he received de-isolation,” he said.

“He definitely wants to trick the US. He is doing everything he can to avoid sanctions, to prevent the US and Trump from putting sanctions on him.”

Zelenskyy believes Trump is reluctant to put pressure on Putin because it might jeopardise attempts to end the war.

But the Ukrainian leader argues this isn’t the way to handle the Russian president: “He understands force. That’s his language. That’s the language he understands. He doesn’t speak many languages, but that’s the language of force he understands – just like Russian, you know, his mother tongue.”

Zelenskyy also argued Trump’s emphasis on getting the Europeans to ratchet up economic pressure – foremost by stopping their purchases of Russian energy, and by putting tariffs on other buyers like China and India – was understandable, but that the world’s superpower shouldn’t wait for others to act.

Trump has called on EU countries to end all Russian oil and gas purchases, and only then will he consider imposing sanctions on Russia.

“I think the US is strong enough on its own,” Zelenskyy said.

“They can make this happen quicker and all that’s lacking now is a strong sanctions package from the US.”

World

Russia and Belarus’s military drills are part-theatre – but Moscow is trying to send a message

Published

11 hours ago

September 15, 2025

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Russia and Belarus's military drills are part-theatre - but Moscow is trying to send a message

At times, the sound of these military drills was deafening.

There were fighter jets screaming overhead, air strikes on “enemy” forces, and tracer rounds from artillery units pounding out of the barrels.

Fireballs and mushroom clouds would periodically appear far off on the landscape, followed by a sudden explosive thud several seconds later.

I was watching from the safety of a viewing platform, along with other members of the international media.

But even at that distance, the various blasts were still powerful enough to reverberate through me.

This was the fourth day of ‘Zapad-2025’ – the joint military drills Russia holds with Belarus roughly every four years.

It took place at a training ground near the city of Borisov in Belarus, 150km from the Lithuanian border.

Moscow and Minsk insist the exercises are “defensive”. In this case, they said they were gaming out how they would respond to an attack by a NATO member.

But as I watched, I couldn’t help feeling that the training aspect was only one part of it.

The other part felt like theatre – a show of strength designed to intimidate those watching across the border on Europe’s eastern flank.

The drills were smaller than previous years, most likely because Russia still needs its troops and equipment at the front in Ukraine.

But it still felt like Moscow was trying to send a message here – that despite the costs and casualties incurred fighting Kyiv, it’s still a force to be reckoned with.

For Belarus’s neighbours, these are anxious times. The last Zapad drills in 2021 were used as a springboard for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a few months later. And so this time, Poland has closed its border, and like Lithuania, it’s holding military drills of its own.

Afterwards, I tried to catch up with some of the defence dignitaries from foreign militaries, who had been invited to observe the drills. I wanted to see what they made of the show.

“A very good demonstration,” a senior officer from Pakistan told me, declining to give his name.

“It gives us an insight of how war is being fought, with new technologies, in this part of the world.”

But what about Poland’s concerns?

“Are they right to be nervous?” I asked. “Would you be nervous if you were next door?”

“Why would I be nervous?” he replied. “Being Pakistani, I know what I’m capable of. So I shouldn’t be nervous by somebody else doing exercises.”

“So NATO has no need to worry?” I continued.

“No, I don’t think so. NATO shouldn’t be worried.”

There were actually some representatives from NATO members among the observers.

Delegations from Hungary and Turkey are no surprise – both countries have good relations with Moscow – but a team from the United States did raise eyebrows.

A further sign, it seems, that the Trump administration is seeking to build bridges with the Kremlin, despite the lack of progress towards a Russia-Ukraine peace deal.

Unfortunately, none of those officials would answer my questions. Wary, perhaps, of sticking their head above the parapet, as the alliance seeks to present a united front.