A Libyan city scarred by disaster tries to rebuild a year after deadly flooding

A Libyan city scarred by disaster tries to rebuild a year after deadly flooding
A member of the Libyan Red Crescent Society walks past numbered graves of the bodies of victims recovered by Libya’s National Authority for the Search and Identification of the Missing, at a cemetery in Libya’s eastern coastal city of Derna on Sept. 9, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 10 September 2024
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A Libyan city scarred by disaster tries to rebuild a year after deadly flooding

A Libyan city scarred by disaster tries to rebuild a year after deadly flooding
  • For Libya, the disaster on the night of Sept. 10 was unprecedented as torrential rains from Mediterranean storm Daniel gushed down steep mountainsides
  • Those who survived in the coastal city recount nightmarish scenes, with bodies piling up quicker than authorities could count them

DERNA, Libya: A year since two dams burst upstream from the eastern Libyan city of Derna, unleashing a wall of water that swept away thousands of people, its residents no longer hold out hope of finding many of their loved ones.
For Libya, the disaster on the night of Sept. 10 was unprecedented as torrential rains from Mediterranean storm Daniel gushed down steep mountainsides. Those who survived in the coastal city recount nightmarish scenes, with bodies piling up quicker than authorities could count them.
Mohsen Al-Sheikh, a 52-year-old actor and theater administrator, lost 103 of his extended family — only four bodies of his relatives were recovered.
Scores of other families were also nearly wiped out, with only a few surviving members, Al-Sheikh says. “Those who were found were found, and those who weren’t, weren’t.”
Now, the townspeople and city officials are trying to rebuild even though they will never bury those who disappeared forever.
Deadly flooding in Derna’s riverbed valley
Residents of Derna woke up to the loud explosions of the two dams breaking. What followed was a living nightmare.
The surging waters, two stories high, wiped out entire neighborhoods, roads, bridges and residential buildings across the port city. Thousands of people were instantly washed away, drowning within minutes, and tens of thousands more were displaced.
Estimates from aid organizations put the number of deaths between 4,000 and 11,000, and the number of missing people between 9,000 and 10,000. Another 30,000 were displaced.
Houses in the Al-Maghar neighborhood, where Al-Sheikh lives, were built on a hillside of a dry riverbed valley, where the water rushed into. The slope meant many houses had a lower and upper entrance on opposite sides — a design that Al-Maghar had come up with many years earlier. Some fleeing families used the back doors to escape to higher ground.
Al-Maghar’s design may have saved hundreds during the flooding, although it wasn’t built to serve an emergency purpose. That night, many also fled by running into their neighbors’ homes and up the hill, through the higher-level doors.
Derna residents ended up calling them “the doors of safety.”
That night, Shaker Alhusni left his own home to help a neighbor, only to return and find his house full of water. His family was able to flee to higher floors.
A report published not long after the disaster found that the torrential rains were 50 times more likely to occur and 50 percent more intense because of human-caused climate change. The analysis was conducted by the World Weather Attribution group, which aims to quickly evaluate the possible role of climate change in extreme weather events.
In late July, Libya’s criminal court sentenced 12 local officials responsible for managing the country’s dam facilities for negligence in the dams’ maintenance. Sentences ranged between nine to 29 years in prison, according to Libya’s Attorney General’s Office. ٍ
Rebuilding amid political uncertainty
The oil-rich Libya has been in chaos since 2011, when an Arab Spring uprising, backed by NATO, ousted longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi, who was later killed.
Derna, with its diverse mix of residents of Turkish, Andalusian and Cretan origin, was for years a cultural center of the North African country. But it was also deeply affected by Libya’s civil war and more than a decade of unrest. For several years after the 2011 uprising, it fell under the influence of the Daesh group and other extremists.
Now, one of Libya’s rival authorities is putting serious resources into rebuilding Derna — the east-based government and the forces of Gen. Khalifa Haftar and his self-styled Libyan National Army. A rival administration is based in the capital of Tripoli, to the west, and enjoys the support of most of the international community.
Last September, the east-based Libyan parliament agreed to allocate 10 billion Libyan dinars (around $2 billion) to launch a development fund that would help rebuild Derna and impacted areas around the city.
A city committee for maintenance and reconstruction began building new homes and provided financial compensation for the survivors, including Al-Sheikh.
Across Derna’s riverbed, widened by the floodwaters, Al-Sahaba Bridge is being rebuilt along with Al-Sahaba Mosque next door.
There are plans to build 280 apartments for those who lost their homes, according to Salem Al-Sheikh, an engineer at the construction site that’s part of a residential project launched in May. Al-Sheikh told The Associated Press that 60 percent of reconstruction works across Derna has been completed.
More support for the survivors
International observers say that the country needs much more support to help the coastal city get back to a semblance of the life it once had.
“There remains a critical need for coordinated, effective and efficient reconstruction and long-term development,” said Stephanie Koury, head of the UN’s mission to Libya, or UNSMIL, said in a statement marking the first anniversary of Derna’s disaster.
In July, Liz Throssell, spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office, said reconstruction efforts and helping authorities identify human remains are crucial.
“We reiterate the calls of affected communities for coordinated, transparent, and national efforts for reconstruction,” she said. “It is crucial to provide assistance ... in the identification of human remains and the dignified reburial of the bodies.”
Plans to rebuild the dams were being discussed last year, but it remains unconfirmed whether those plans will move forward.
That leaves Al-Sheikh uncertain whether he’ll be able to return to his house or will it be completely demolished like others that remain along the Derna Valley to avoid another similar tragedy in the future.


American killed in Lebanon was a US citizen, State Dept says

Kamel Ahmad Jawad. (Courtesy Jawad Family)
Kamel Ahmad Jawad. (Courtesy Jawad Family)
Updated 05 October 2024
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American killed in Lebanon was a US citizen, State Dept says

Kamel Ahmad Jawad. (Courtesy Jawad Family)
  • State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller earlier this week said it was Washington’s understanding that Jawad was a legal permanent resident, not an American citizen. On Friday, the department said that he was a US citizen

WASHINGTON: An American killed in Lebanon this week was a US citizen, a State Department spokesperson said on Friday, adding that Washington was working to understand the circumstances of the incident.
Kamel Ahmad Jawad, from Dearborn, Michigan, was killed in Lebanon in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday, according to his daughter, a friend and the US congresswoman representing his district.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller earlier this week said it was Washington’s understanding that Jawad was a legal permanent resident, not an American citizen. On Friday, the department said that he was a US citizen.
“We are aware and alarmed of reports of the death of Kamel Jawad, who we have confirmed is a US citizen,” the spokesperson said.
“As we have noted repeatedly, it is a moral and strategic imperative that Israel take all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm. Any loss of civilian life is a tragedy.”
Israel says it is targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, who have been firing rockets into Israel since the war in Gaza began a year ago.
Its recent military campaign in Lebanon has killed hundreds and wounded thousands, according to the Lebanese government, which has not said how many of the casualties were civilians versus Hezbollah members. The Israeli bombardment has also driven more than 1.2 million Lebanese from their homes.
The governor of Michigan has urged the US government to do more to rescue Americans stuck in Lebanon, many of them from Michigan, during Israel’s military offensive in the country.

 


Tunisians protest against President Saied two days before presidential vote

Tunisians protest against President Saied two days before presidential vote
Updated 05 October 2024
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Tunisians protest against President Saied two days before presidential vote

Tunisians protest against President Saied two days before presidential vote
  • The opposition’s anger flared after presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel was handed down three prison sentences totalling 14 years

TUNIS: Hundreds of Tunisians marched in the capital on Friday, escalating protests against President Kais Saied, two days before what they say is an unfair presidential vote in which Saied has removed most other candidates to remain in power.
Protesters, who held up banners reading “Farce elections” and “Freedoms, not a lifelong presidency,” marched to Habib Bourguiba Avenue, the main thoroughfare in Tunis and a focus point in 2011 protests that toppled former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Political tensions in the North African country have risen since an electoral commission named by Saied disqualified three other prominent candidates, and an independent court has been stripped of authority to adjudicate on election disputes by the parliament.
The opposition’s anger flared after presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel was handed down three prison sentences totalling 14 years.
He has been in jail since he was arrested a month ago on charges of forging electoral documents.
Saied now faces just two rival candidates, Zammel and Zouhair Maghzaoui, who was a former Saied ally and then turned critic.
Protesters chanted slogans against Saied: “The people want the fall of the regime” and Dictator Saied ... your turn has come.”
“Tunisians are not accustomed to such an election. In 2011, 2014 and 2019 they expressed their opinions freely, but this election does not allow them the right to choose their destiny,” said Zied Ghanney, an opposition figure.

 


Hamas counters abduction claim, says Yazidi woman’s Gaza departure was voluntary

Hamas counters abduction claim, says Yazidi woman’s Gaza departure was voluntary
Updated 05 October 2024
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Hamas counters abduction claim, says Yazidi woman’s Gaza departure was voluntary

Hamas counters abduction claim, says Yazidi woman’s Gaza departure was voluntary
  • “The Yazidi woman left the government facility to the crossing on her own, with the knowledge of her deceased husband’s family and the Palestinian government
  • A US defense official said on Thursday the American military did not have a role in the evacuation

CAIRO: The Islamist group Hamas rejected what it called “a false narrative and fabricated story” about a Yazidi woman Israel said was freed in Gaza in a secret operation involving Israel, the United States and Iraq.
The woman, whom Israeli officials have said was taken captive when she was 11 years old and sold to a Hamas member, had never been abducted or sold, and was able to leave Gaza with the knowledge of the Hamas authorities, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said on Friday.
It said the 25-year old woman, identified as Fawzia Sido, was married to a Palestinian who fought alongside the Syrian opposition forces before he was killed. She later moved to live with his mother in Turkiye before traveling to Egypt, where she continued to live with her mother-in-law and later crossed into Gaza legally.
Years after she moved to live in Gaza, she married her husband’s brother before he was killed during the ongoing Israeli military offensive, Hamas said.
“She requested to contact her family because she felt increasingly unsafe in Gaza amid the intense bombing and brutal attacks by the Israeli occupation. She asked for evacuation, especially after her husband was martyred,” the Gaza government media office said.
“The Yazidi woman left the government facility to the crossing on her own, with the knowledge of her deceased husband’s family and the Palestinian government. The occupation did not ‘rescue’ her, as falsely claimed in its statement aimed at misleading public opinion,” it added.
Reuters could not reach the woman directly for comment on Thursday, with Iraqi officials saying she was resting after having been reunited with her family in northern Iraq.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said it had coordinated with the US Embassy in Jerusalem and “other international actors” in the operation to free Sido.
It said in a statement her captor had been killed during the Gaza war, presumably by an Israeli strike, and she then fled to a hideout inside the Gaza Strip.
“In a complex operation coordinated between Israel, the United States, and other international actors, she was recently rescued in a secret mission from the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom Crossing,” it said.
A US defense official said on Thursday the American military did not have a role in the evacuation.
She was freed after more than four months of efforts that involved several attempts that failed due to the difficult security situation resulting from Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, Silwan Sinjaree, chief of staff of Iraq’s foreign minister, told Reuters on Thursday.
Iraq and Israel do not have any diplomatic ties.
“The narrative the occupation attempted to promote is entirely false. The woman traveled to Gaza through multiple airports and official border crossings,” the Hamas statement said.
“How could she pass through all these checkpoints without security noticing, only for the occupation to later claim she was kidnapped?” it added.

 


Egypt’s plan to save some dough: cut the wheat in bread

Egypt’s plan to save some dough: cut the wheat in bread
Updated 05 October 2024
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Egypt’s plan to save some dough: cut the wheat in bread

Egypt’s plan to save some dough: cut the wheat in bread
  • But bakers, millers and consumers fear the product will smell and taste different

RIYADH: Egypt plans to save millions of dollars in import costs by replacing a fifth of the wheatflour in the nation’s bread with cheaper ingredients such as corn or sorghum, industry sources said on Friday.
But bakers and millers reacted with anger when the plan was put to them by the Supply Ministry, and consumers fear their bread will taste different. “The change could be unpopular, producing bread with a different texture and smell,” said Hesham Soliman, a trader in Cairo.

Bakeries oppose the plan because coarser flour requires lengthier baking and would increase labor costs. Mills are also opposed because they are paid based on how much wheat they process, which would be reduced.

Egypt has tried wheat substitution to reduce imports before. Corn was used for several years two decades ago before campaigning by industry groups pushed the government to abandon it.

In another money-saving move, the government raised the price of subsidised bread this year for the first time in decades.

Egypt needs about 8.25 million tonnes of wheat a year to make subsidised bread available to more than 70 million people. It is one of the world’s largest wheat importers, mostly from Russia, at a cost of more than $2 billion a year.


The International Criminal Court unsealed war crimes arrest warrants for 6 Libyan suspects

The International Criminal Court unsealed war crimes arrest warrants for 6 Libyan suspects
Updated 05 October 2024
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The International Criminal Court unsealed war crimes arrest warrants for 6 Libyan suspects

The International Criminal Court unsealed war crimes arrest warrants for 6 Libyan suspects
  • Khan said that 3 of the suspects were leaders or senior members of the Al Kaniyat militia that controlled Tarhunah from at least 2015 to June 2020, and 3 others were Libyan security officials associated with the militia at the time of the alleged crimes

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: The International Criminal Court unsealed arrest warrants Friday for six men allegedly linked to a brutal Libyan militia blamed for multiple killings and other crimes in a strategically important western town where mass graves were discovered in 2020.
Libya has been in political turmoil since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. Since then, Libya has been split between rival administrations in the east and the west, each backed by militias and foreign governments.
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said his investigation has gathered evidence “indicating that Tarhunah residents have been subjected to crimes amounting to war crimes, including murder, outrages upon personal dignity, cruel treatment, torture, sexual violence, and rape.”
The court unsealed warrants against six men: Abdelrahim Al-Kani, Makhlouf Douma, Nasser Al-Lahsa, Mohammed Salheen, Abdelbari Al-Shaqaqi and Fathi Al-Zinkal.
Khan said that three of the suspects were leaders or senior members of the Al Kaniyat militia that controlled Tarhunah from at least 2015 to June 2020, and three others were Libyan security officials associated with the militia at the time of the alleged crimes.
Warrants for four of the suspects were issued in April 2023 and two more in July of that year but were kept under seal.
“It is now my view that arrest and surrender can be achieved most effectively through the unsealing of these warrants,” Khan said in a statement.
The mass graves were found in Tarhunah after the militia’s withdrawal following the collapse of a 14-month campaign by military commander Khalifa Haftar to wrest control of Tripoli from an array of militias allied with the former UN-recognized government.
The ICC does not have a police force and relies on cooperation from its 124 member states to enforce arrest warrants. Khan said his office is “seeking to work closely with Libyan authorities so that these individuals can face the charges against them in a court of law” and working with court officials to seek their arrest.
The court opened an investigation in Libya in 2011 at the request of the UN Security Council. It quickly issued warrants for suspects including former dictator Qaddafi, but he was killed before he could be detained and sent for trial. Qaddafi’s son, Seif Al-Islam Qaddafi, also is wanted by the court.