Libya: after the floods, the inhabitants of Derna shout their anger in opposition to the authorities

After the stupor, anger. Residents of Derna, in japanese Libya, protested on Monday, September 18, to demand that the authorities be held accountable after the lethal floods that devastated the city, in response to AFP correspondents.

Tons of of residents gathered in entrance of town’s grand mosque the place they chanted slogans in opposition to the japanese authorities embodied by Parliament and its chief Aguila Saleh.

“The folks need the autumn of Parliament”, “Aguila (Saleh) is the enemy of God”or “those that stole or betrayed should be hanged”, “Libya, Neither East nor West, nationwide unity”they chanted.

In a press launch learn through the demonstration on behalf of «inhabitants of Derna»they referred to as for “a fast investigation and authorized motion in opposition to these accountable for the catastrophe”.

In addition they requested “the pressing institution of a UN help workplace in Derna” and at launch “of the method of rebuilding town and compensating affected residents”.

Dissolution of the municipal council

The assertion additional calls for the dissolution of the present metropolis council and an investigation into town’s earlier budgets.

A number of demonstrators headed in direction of a home introduced as that of town’s hated mayor, Abdulmonem al-Ghaithi, and set it on hearth, to cries of “the blood of martyrs isn’t shed in useless”in response to photos extensively shared on social networks and by Libyan media.

A number of hours after the demonstration, the pinnacle of the chief in japanese Libya, Osama Hamad, dissolved the municipal council of Derna, in opposition to which he ordered the opening of an investigation, introduced Libyan tv al -Masar.

In line with politicians and analysts, the chaos in Libya has relegated the upkeep of significant infrastructure to the background, such because the Derna dams, the collapse of which prompted the floods that devastated town on September 10, killing 3,338 folks in response to the final provisional official report communicated Monday night by the Minister of Well being of the east, Othman Abdeljalil.

Worry of illness unfold

Wracked by divisions for the reason that fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya is in actual fact ruled by two rival administrations: one in Tripoli (west), acknowledged by the UN and led by Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah, the opposite within the East, embodied by Parliament and affiliated with the camp of highly effective Marshal Khalifa Haftar.

Haftar’s forces seized Derna in 2018, then a stronghold of radical Islamists and the one metropolis within the east that escaped his management. However the japanese authorities preserve cautious relations with Derna, thought of a protest metropolis for the reason that time of Gaddafi.

The demonstration comes as rescuers are nonetheless looking for the our bodies of 1000’s of lacking folks presumed to have died within the floods on this metropolis of 100,000 inhabitants bordering the Mediterranean.

The United Nations introduced Monday that its businesses, together with the World Well being Group, are working to “forestall the unfold of illness and keep away from a second devastating disaster within the area”warning of a threat coming from “contaminated water and lack of hygiene”.