Flood death toll soars to 11,300 in Libya's coastal city of Derna

A true catastrophe.

One would hope that the country's oil wealth would be used for the benefit of the people.

The people must be living in despair, now even more so. For some this world is a nice place, for some its a torment.

Here is mention of the contract to update the two dams.

https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/2023/09/14/derna-dam-collapse-stokes-anger-over-libyas-corruption-and-chaos/

Remember when reading this that Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt support the LNA with SA and UAE seeking to install a rigid Wahabi based government, while the Tripoli based UN recognized GNA (that only controls a small region around Tripoli) is allied with Turkey and Qatar both of whom want Libya ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood along with some jihadist militias the Qataris fund. And everyone else just wants to be able to buy Libyan oil and could care less who runs the place. Those are the dynamics behind this dispute.

A report by a state-run audit agency in 2021 said the dams had not been maintained despite the allocation of more than 2 million euros for that purpose in 2012 and 2013.

The reports I have read all claim the dams, built by Yugoslav contractors have not had maintenance since 2002.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/13/why-did-dernas-dams-break-when-storm-daniel-hit-libya

https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/2023/09/13/libya-floods-why-did-the-derna-dams-fail/

There was a contract let to a Turkish company in 2020 to perform work on the two dams but the firm never started the work.

So keep in mind when you see things like this the contract was apparently awarded by a ministry controlled by the GNA in Tripoli, which counts Turkey and Qatar as allies. However Derna is in territory nominally controlled by the LNA in Bengazi with significant IS presence and the LNA see the Turks as their enemy (Turkish drones operated by Turkish Army savaged Russian made air defenses of the LNA in fighting several years earlier). It is not surprising a Turkish firm was unable to perform any work in an LNA controlled region.

Keepyer InternetpointsToday 10:24 am JST

But the America apologists are just going to blame the weather of course.

No, I blame it on it having never been a particularly well organized country, even under the dictator.

Ghaddafi was a stable ruler who invested in his country. Under him I have no doubt those dams would have been better maintained.

You have no doubt, huh? Just based on your intuition that everything in the country fell apart because NATO touched it on a UN approved mission?

They certainly were not maintained during this period of anarchy caused by directly by U.S. greed and love of destruction abroad.

Not just the US my friend, but don't let it stop you from your Great Satan posts today.

Horrific. The terrain couldn't have been worse: a wadi draining onto an alluvial plain. Poor Libyans just can't catch a break - it wasn't their fault they were born in such a country.

11,000 dead from the floods. Very tragic.

Ghaddafi was a stable ruler who invested in his country. Under him I have no doubt those dams would have been better maintained. They certainly were not maintained during this period of anarchy caused by directly by U.S. greed and love of destruction abroad.

But the America apologists are just going to blame the weather of course.

I had no idea that Libya has basically split into east and west.

I wonder how the Libyan governments (since there are two) and international community supplying aid are going to explain the bodies of southern Africans that were captured on their route to Europe and enslaved to be sold throughout the country or to partnering Middle Eastern and Eastern European countries.

Libya re-established its slave trade after the fall of Khadafi. When Khadafi died, the country got worse with competing Warlords creating two separate governments.

Two governments are one of main reasons the recovery is so chaotic, and Libya is only allowing certain countries to assist because a lot of dirty secrets will come to light if more groups get in there. Also, both governments are afraid that they will lose their power after international intervention.

Get help to this country right away.

Yes, I am aware that 'western' nations wanted Gaddafi gone, but Russia and its pals have been fighting in Libya since Gaddafi's ouster, and continue to keep the wars for control of oil and gas goinfg

The Russians only figure peripherally in Libya. The real fight is between a Saudi/UAE vision of a Libya governed by their rigid Wahabi form of Islam as they support the Libyan National Army (LNA) headquartered in Behgazi. The opposition led by Qatar and Turkey supporting the UN recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) seeks to install a government led by the Muslim Brotherhood. Turkey and especially Qatar also fund several jihadist groups that are aligned with the GNA. The Russians through Wagner support the LNA along with Egypt ( where the Muslim Brotherhood is banned and who fears them gaining power next door ) and some Chadian and Sudanese militias.

in the oil-rich country that has been mired in conflict since a 2011 uprising that toppled long-ruling dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Another catastrophe linked to wars for oil and gas, and the petrochemical barons and their apologists claim it's too soon to move out of the fossil era, even though the fossil barons themselves have known for decades how much damage burning huge amounts of fossil fuels has done to the environment. And those same barons are profiting from the wars for control of oil and gas. Yes, I am aware that 'western' nations wanted Gaddafi gone, but Russia and its pals have been fighting in Libya since Gaddafi's ouster, and continue to keep the wars for control of oil and gas goinfg