Libya leaders call for probe into Derna dam collapse

The president of Libya's Presidential Council, Mohammed Al-Menfi, has called for a comprehensive investigation into the collapse of the Derna dams, according to local media reports on Wednesday.

Al-Menfi called on the Attorney General to investigate the circumstances of the disaster which had killed over 5,100 people as thousands more remain missing, adding that anyone who made mistakes or neglected their duties leading to the collapse of the dams had to be held accountable. 

Al-Menfi also called for an inquiry into the reported obstruction of international relief efforts or access to the affected cities, according to a report by the Tripoli-based official news agency Lana.

Prime Minister of the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) Abdul Hamid Dbeibah announced that he had asked the prosecutor to investigate the circumstances leading to the dams' collapse.

"I called on the Attorney General to initiate an urgent investigation into the circumstances of the collapse of the Derna dams, and I directed the relevant authorities to fully cooperate in this matter," Dbeibah said on X (formerly Twitter).

The Derna dams caved under the pressure of water gathering behind them during Storm Daniel's deadly flooding which hit many eastern Libya towns late on Sunday.

Derna residents said they heard loud explosions when the dams collapsed.

Floodwaters washed down Wadi Derna, a valley that cuts through the city, crumbling buildings, and washing people out to sea.

The number of deaths was likely to climb as there are at least 9,000 people still missing, according to Ossama Ali, a spokesman for an ambulance center in eastern Libya.

The floods have displaced at least 30,000 people in Derna, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration, and several thousand others were forced to leave their homes in other eastern towns, the UN agency said.

The floods damaged or destroyed many access roads to Derna, hampering the arrival of international rescue teams and humanitarian assistance.

Libya is divided by rival governments - one in the east, the other in the west - and one result has been widespread neglect of infrastructure.

The dams that collapsed outside Derna were built in the 1970s and have not been maintained for years, local media reported.

More than 3,000 bodies were buried by Thursday morning, said eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel, while another 2,000 were still being processed.

Abduljaleel said most of the dead were buried in mass graves outside Derna, while others were transferred to nearby towns and cities, adding that rescue teams were still searching wrecked buildings in the city centre, and divers combing seawater off Derna.

The storm hit other areas in eastern Libya, including the towns of Bayda, Susa, Um Razaz, and Marj, leaving around 170 dead, the health minister said.

The dead in eastern Libya included at least 84 Egyptians, who were transferred to their home country on Wednesday.

More than 70 came from one village in the southern province of Beni Suef. Libyan media also said dozens of Sudanese migrants were killed in the disaster.