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.


Many Palestinian camps in Lebanon ‘empty after Israeli strikes’

UNIFIL vehicles drive in Marjayoun, near the border with Israel. (Reuters)
UNIFIL vehicles drive in Marjayoun, near the border with Israel. (Reuters)
Updated 12 October 2024
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Many Palestinian camps in Lebanon ‘empty after Israeli strikes’

UNIFIL vehicles drive in Marjayoun, near the border with Israel. (Reuters)
  • Israel has ramped up strikes across southern Lebanon and on Beirut’s once-densely populated southern suburbs over the last three weeks, issuing evacuation warnings for more than 100 towns in southern Lebanon and neighborhoods near the capital

BEIRUT: Most Palestinian refugees living in camps in southern Lebanon or near Beirut have fled following escalating Israeli strikes, the head of the UN agency on Palestine refugees said on Friday, drawing parallels with mass displacement in Gaza.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said that the agency continued to provide services to the most vulnerable left behind — and that repeatedly fleeing was sadly “part of the history” of Palestinians. “Now, that’s part, unfortunately, of the plight, but if you compare it with what happened also in Gaza recently, you might have heard me describing how people are constantly being moved like pinballs. And one of the fears is that we replicate a situation similar to the one we have seen until now in Gaza,” he said.
Israel has ramped up strikes across southern Lebanon and on Beirut’s once-densely populated southern suburbs over the last three weeks, issuing evacuation warnings for more than 100 towns in southern Lebanon and neighborhoods near the capital.
They include evacuation warnings and strikes on the Burj Al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Rashidiyeh Palestinian refugee camp near the south coastal city of Tyre. Many of the Palestinians who arrived in Lebanon after Israel’s creation in 1948, and their descendants, were living in 12 refugee camps around the country, which hosted about 174,000 Palestinian refugees.
Israeli leaders have accused UNRWA staff of collaborating with Hamas militants in Gaza, leading many donors to suspend funding.
The UN launched an investigation into Israel’s accusations and dismissed nine staff.
In July, the Israeli parliament gave preliminary approval to a bill that would declare UNRWA a “terrorist organization.”
Asked about the move, Lazzarini said the agency “has never, ever been as much under assault and attack.”
“A year ago, it was primarily a financial existential threat, but today it’s a combination of a political and financial threat. 2025 will be, again, a difficult year,” he said. He said he would have more clarity early next year on whether the US would resume funding.


Gaza civil defense agency says 30 killed in Israeli strikes in Jabalia on Friday

Gaza civil defense agency says 30 killed in Israeli strikes in Jabalia on Friday
Updated 11 October 2024
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Gaza civil defense agency says 30 killed in Israeli strikes in Jabalia on Friday

Gaza civil defense agency says 30 killed in Israeli strikes in Jabalia on Friday
  • A strike that occurred before 9:40 p.m. local time had left “12 dead, including women and children“

GAZA: Gaza’s civil defense agency Friday said at least 30 people have been killed by Israeli strikes throughout the day in northern Gaza’s Jabalia town and refugee camp amid intense combat operations by the Israeli army in the area.
The agency’s spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said that a strike that occurred before 9:40 p.m. local time (1840 GMT) had left “12 dead, including women and children” in the town.
Before that incident, Ahmad Kahlout — director of the agency in northern Gaza — said 18 people had been killed by several strikes, including hits on “eight schools” in the camp that were serving as shelters for displaced people.


Baghdad reinvents itself as heritage tourism destination

Baghdad reinvents itself as heritage tourism destination
Updated 11 October 2024
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Baghdad reinvents itself as heritage tourism destination

Baghdad reinvents itself as heritage tourism destination
  • A professor and an architecture student organize walking tours of Iraqi capital’s historic sites

RIYADH: After decades of war, airstrikes, suicide attacks and car bombs, Baghdad is staking its claim as a heritage tourism attraction.

A fragile stability has emerged since the defeat of Daesh in 2017 allowed a greater focus on the Iraqi capital’s history and culture.

Muaffaq Al-Tai, 83, a professor, and Abdullah Imad, 23, an architecture student, organize walking tours of the city’s historic center, including an 800-year-old Abbasid palace with arabesque reliefs and the battlements of the 12th-century Bab Al-Wastani, the Central Gate.

“We want to show the public what Baghdad has to offer in terms of Islamic architecture, its value and identity,” Imad said
The renewed interest in Iraq’s heritage was “a source of hope for a positive change in our identity, and our heritage and its preservation,” said Fatima Al-Moqdad, 28, an architect.
“When young people surf the internet, they see how other nations look after their heritage. They want and deserve the same.”


Israel army says sirens sound north of Tel Aviv due to ‘aircraft infiltration’

Israel army says sirens sound north of Tel Aviv due to ‘aircraft infiltration’
Updated 11 October 2024
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Israel army says sirens sound north of Tel Aviv due to ‘aircraft infiltration’

Israel army says sirens sound north of Tel Aviv due to ‘aircraft infiltration’
  • Roughly 20 minutes after the alert, Israel’s military said the incident had ended.
  • The air raid sirens came as Israelis observe the Yom Kippur holiday

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military on Friday said air raid sirens sounded in central Israel, including areas north of the commercial hub of Tel Aviv, after an aircraft infiltrated.
“Sirens have been activated in several areas in central Israel following an intrusion of hostile aircraft. Interception attempts have been made, and details are under investigation. Additional explosions may be heard, originating from interceptions or debris,” the military said in a statement.
Roughly 20 minutes after the alert, Israel’s military said the incident had ended.
The air raid sirens came as Israelis observe the Yom Kippur holiday.
Earlier Friday evening, air raid sirens blared in dozens of areas across northwestern after dozens of projectiles were fired from Lebanon, the military said.
From sundown on Friday until nightfall on Saturday, markets are closed, flights stopped and public transport halted as most Jews fast and pray on the Day of Atonement.
Due to its status as Judaism’s holiest day, Yom Kippur is traditionally observed with a complete media silence during the period.
Media outlets, however, have pledged to cover major developments or updates, as Israel fights Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas Palestinians militants in Gaza.


Western leaders urge Israel to stop harming peacekeepers

Western leaders urge Israel to stop harming peacekeepers
Updated 11 October 2024
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Western leaders urge Israel to stop harming peacekeepers

Western leaders urge Israel to stop harming peacekeepers
  • France’s President Emmanuel Macron said it was “absolutely unacceptable“
  • Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez demanded an “end to all violence” against UN peacekeepers in Lebanon

PARIS: Western leaders urged Israel Friday to stop harming UN peacekeepers in Lebanon after explosions wounded two of them near the country’s border.
The Israeli military (IDF) said its forces on Friday fired at a threat near a UN peacekeeping mission position.
A spokeswoman for the UNIFIL mission said two Sri Lankan peacekeepers were hurt in the second such incident in two days.
US President Joe Biden told reporters he was “absolutely, positively” asking Israel to stop firing at UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron said it was “absolutely unacceptable” that peacekeepers were “deliberately targeted.” The foreign ministry summoned the Israeli ambassador, saying the incident constituted “serious violations of international law and must cease immediately.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the firing, which she said violated a UN resolution, as “unacceptable.” Italy has more than 1,000 troops in Lebanon.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez demanded an “end to all violence” against UN peacekeepers in Lebanon. He called Friday’s incident “absolutely unacceptable.”
Ireland’s foreign minister Micheal Martin called it a “shocking” and “unacceptable” development and “a very serious intensification of IDF hostility toward UN forces.” Ireland has about 350 soldiers in UNIFIL.