A little over six months ago, the town of Derna, in northeastern Libya, was submerged by water after Storm Daniel.
On September 10, 2023, it led to the rupture of two dams upstream causing a flood of the magnitude of a tsunami.
The resulting deadly floods swept away everything in their path and left more than 4,300 dead and more than 8,500 missing, according to figures from Unicef and the World Bank.
In a report published in January, the latter estimated the total cost of the disaster at 1.57 billion euros, while certain areas of the city were literally wiped off the map.
Today, while bodies are still found in the rubble, survivors are struggling to get back on their feet, although clearance and reconstruction work continues in partially affected neighborhoods.
At the beginning of January, the results of the local judicial investigation pointed to the fragility of the dams which failed on the night of September 10 to 11 and the negligence of those responsible for water management which led to a disaster which could have been avoided.
The trial of the officials targeted in the investigation began this week.
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For its part, Amnesty International published a report on Monday March 11 in which the NGO denounces the lack of fairness in access to compensation and calls for in-depth investigations into the responsibility of powerful military and political actors.
A call which risks finding no echo in a country plunged into political instability at the end of a decade of violence which followed the fall of the dictatorial regime of Muammar Gaddafi on October 20, 2011.
To find out more about the situation in this battered city, France 24 collected the testimony of Atiyah Alhasadi, astrophysicist and teaching assistant in the physics department at the University of Derna.
France 24: You were on site
during the
floods caused by the bursting of the dams.
Can you tell us about that night?
Atiyah Alhasadi:
That night, I was monitoring the progress of Storm Daniel and its trajectory.
I was in the street, ten minutes before the electricity went out.
I then rushed home to get a flashlight.
On site, I saw my house fill with water in a second, while a multitude of things torn away and carried by the power of the waters hit the building, like trees and cars.
My family and I decided to escape via the stairs to take refuge on the roof of the house.
It was very dark, but every time we had light we thought we were in the middle of the ocean.
With each flash we saw houses collapse, debris, people, bodies being swept away in the wave of floods, it was horrible.
That night, many people in Derna believed that the day of judgment had arrived.
Six months later, where are the reconstruction efforts in the devastated areas?
Completely devastated areas are still deprived of everything, and almost no reconstruction process is underway.
On the other hand, basic services such as electricity and even water have been restored in neighborhoods partially affected by the floods.
Rehabilitation efforts are underway in these relatively spared neighborhoods, whether in terms of cleaning, the internet network and the restoration of the road system.
In recent months, I have seen Libyan companies begin rebuilding schools, clinics, streets and sidewalks.
There are also buildings affected by the disaster under construction.
At the same time, there are Egyptian companies that are responsible for rebuilding a bridge and the main road in the town of Derna.
What
state of mind are the inhabitants of Derna in?
How do they deal with this situation?
Today, Derna lives during Ramadan.
Except that this year, residents began this holy month with mixed feelings.
They are obviously very happy to be back with family, but they are also very sad because they think of all those who are no longer there, of all the people they loved and who lost their lives in the disaster.
It's not easy to live with, especially since this population has not been spared and has experienced a lot of trauma in a little over a decade.
After suffering the horrors of the war against the Gaddafi regime, and the takeover of their city by the Islamic State organization, which lasted a year, until June 2015, and the fighting that followed followed, they suffered this deadly flood.
Many families were bereaved during these events which are not without consequences on mental health.
And that's one of the other major issues that needs to be addressed.
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