Libya dam burst: Torrent of frustration unleashed in Derna as flood-hit protesters call for leadership change
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.”
A spontaneous protest formed in Derna as anger turns on local leaders
Protests at the Al Sahaba mosque
Flood destruction by the mosque
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.
Abdul Gabriel has lost multiple family members in the fllooding
“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.”
Protesters hold a sign written in English and Arabic
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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.
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Boy swept out to sea survives
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About 10,000 people are still unaccounted for.
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?
A protester waves the Libyan flag
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
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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IDF reservists call for end to war in Gaza
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
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