Hundreds of people have protested in the eastern Libyan city of Derna, venting their anger against authorities and demanding accountability, a week after flooding killed thousands of residents and destroyed entire neighborhoods.
On Monday, protesters targeted officials, including the head of Libya’s eastern-based parliament, Aguila Saleh, during the demonstration outside the city’s Al-Sahaba mosque. Some sat on the roof in front of the golden dome, a symbol of Derna.
“Aguila, we don’t want you! All Libyans are brothers!” Protesters chanted for national unity in a country politically divided by more than a decade of conflict and chaos.
Libya has two rival governments: an internationally recognized one based in the capital Tripoli in the west of the country and another self-proclaimed government based in the eastern city of Benghazi, which is backed by renegade General Khalifa Haftar.
Monday’s protest is the first major demonstration since flooding swept through Derna when two dams in the hills outside the city failed during a fierce storm, triggering a devastating flash flood.
Said Mansour, a student who took part in the protest, said he wanted an urgent investigation into the collapse of the dams, as a result of which “we lost thousands of our loved ones.”
Taha Miftah, 39, said the protest sent a message that “governments have failed to deal with the crisis,” pointing out that Parliament was primarily responsible.
He called for an international investigation into the disaster and “reconstruction under international supervision.”
The full extent of the death toll is not yet known, and thousands of people are still missing. Officials gave very different numbers of victims. The World Health Organization has confirmed 3,922 deaths.
Last week, Saleh tried to shift blame from authorities by calling the flood an “unprecedented natural disaster” and saying people should not focus on what could or should have been done.
But commentators drew attention to advance warnings, including a paper published last year by a hydrologist outlining the city’s vulnerability to flooding and the urgent need to maintain the levees that protected it.
Source : www.aljazeera.com