BENGHAZI: A Libyan court has jailed 12 officials in connection with the collapse of a series of dams in Derna last year that killed thousands of the city’s residents, the Attorney General said on Sunday.
The officials, who were responsible for managing the country’s dams, were sentenced to between 9 and 27 years in prison by the Court of Appeal in Derna. Four officials were acquitted.
Derna, a coastal city with a population of 125,000, was devastated last September by massive floods caused by Storm Daniel.
Thousands were killed and thousands more were missing as a result of the floods that burst dams, swept away buildings and destroyed entire neighborhoods.
The Attorney General in Tripoli said three of the defendants were ordered to “return money obtained from illicit gains,” according to a statement, which did not give the names or positions of those on trial.
“The convicted officials have been charged with negligence, premeditated murder and waste of public money,” a judicial source in Derna told Reuters by phone, adding that they had the right to appeal against the verdicts.
A report in January by the World Bank, United Nations and European Union said deadly flash flooding in Derna constituted a climate and environmental catastrophe that required $1.8 billion to fund reconstruction and recovery.
The report said the dams’ collapse was partly due to their design, based on outdated hydrological information, and partly a result of poor maintenance and governance problems during more than a decade of conflict in Libya.
Libya has been split since 2014 between rival power centers ruling in east and west following the toppling of Muammar Qaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.
Libyan court jails 12 officials over deadly floods
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Libyan court jails 12 officials over deadly floods
- The officials, who were responsible for managing the country’s dams, were sentenced to between 9 and 27 years in prison
UK sanctions RSF commanders over links to mass killings in Sudan
- The government also pledged a further £21 million to provide food, shelter, health services, and protection for women and children
LONDON: Britain sanctioned senior commanders of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Friday, over what it said were their links to mass killings, systematic sexual violence and deliberate attacks on civilians in the African country.
Abdul Rahim Hamdan Dagalo, the RSF Deputy Leader and brother of RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, as well as three other commanders that are suspected of involvement in these crimes, now face asset freezes and travel bans, the British government said.
“The atrocities taking place in Sudan are so horrific they scar the conscience of the world,” foreign minister Yvette Cooper said in the statement. “Today’s sanctions against RSF commanders strike directly at those with blood on their hands.”
The government also pledged a further £21 million to provide food, shelter, health services, and protection for women and children in some of the hardest-to-reach areas, the statement said.
Millions of people have been displaced by the war, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF.
