Libyan Officials Sentenced to Prison for Dams Collapse that Killed Thousands
A court in Libya has sentenced 12 current and former officials to prison terms ranging from nine to 27 years for their involvement in the collapse of two dams last year that sent a wall of water through the coastal city of Derna, killing thousands of people.
The Derna Criminal Court convicted the officials of mismanagement, negligence, and mistakes that contributed to the disaster, which occurred on September 11 after Storm Daniel caused heavy rain across eastern Libya. The failure of the dams inundated a quarter of the city, destroying entire neighborhoods and sweeping people out to sea.
The defendants, who were responsible for managing the country’s dams, were given prison terms without being identified. Three of the defendants were ordered to return “money obtained from illicit gains,” but the statement did not elaborate. Four other people were acquitted, and the verdict can be appealed before a higher court, according to Libya’s judicial system.
The oil-rich North African nation has been in chaos since 2011, when a NATO-backed uprising-turned-civil war ousted longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. For most of the past decade, rival administrations have claimed authority to lead Libya, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments.
The dams were built by a Yugoslav construction company in the 1970s to protect the city from flash floods, which are common in the area. However, they were not maintained for decades, despite warnings from scientists that they could burst. A report by a state-run audit agency in 2021 found that the dams had not been maintained despite the allocation of over $2 million for that purpose in 2012 and 2013.
The flood of water from the dams left as much as one-third of Derna’s housing and infrastructure damaged, according to the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The World Health Organization reported more than 4,000 flood-related deaths, while the head of Libya’s Red Crescent cited a death toll of 11,300. OCHA also reported at least 9,000 missing people.
The country’s east has been under the control of Gen. Khalifa Hifter and his self-styled Libyan National Army, which is allied with a parliament-confirmed government. A rival administration is based in the capital, Tripoli, and enjoys the support of most of the international community.
