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The
attorney general's office, based in the capital Tripoli, said it
had issued orders to detain eight local officials over the
collapse of dams in a storm, which unleashed the torrent that
swept neighborhoods into the sea, killing thousands.
Those detained included the mayor and an official in charge of
water resources, it said, without identifying them.
Angry residents have blamed the authorities for the collapse of
the dams, which had been built to hold back the flow into the
seasonal riverbed running through the city.
A 2007 contract to repair the dams was never completed amid
civil war that began with the NATO-backed uprising that toppled
Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Derna was controlled until 2019 by
fighters from a series of groups including Islamic State.
Demonstrators torched the home of mayor Abdulmenam al-Ghaithi
last week, and the administration in the east of the country
said he was suspended and the entire city council was sacked.
Thousands of people are confirmed dead from the floods and
thousands more are still missing, with whole buildings washed
out to sea. International rescue teams continue efforts to
recover bodies from under the rubble and in the city's port,
with hopes of finding survivors dwindling.
The flood and rescue effort have also exposed friction between
the central government and a rival administration that controls
the east of the country and does not recognize the authorities
in Tripoli.
(Reporting by Ayman al-Warfali; Writing by Tarek Amara; Editing
by Peter Graff)
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