Saif al-Islam Gaddafi Blames Government Chaos For Collapse Of Derna Dam

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, said that the collapse of the Derna dam, which killed thousands of people and destroyed the city, was caused by “the lack of a state in Libya and the chaos that has prevailed in the country since 2011.”

 

Saif Gaddafi, who has been hidden from the spotlight since the fall of 2019, added that the collapse of the dam that happened in Derna, which was built in the 1970s during his father’s rule, reflects the absence of state institutions, and the absence of specialists and supervisors monitoring and maintaining the dam to report any emergency in order to Take measures to confront disasters, as was the case before 2011.

 

In a fiery statement issued on Friday evening, Gaddafi’s son attacked the successive executive authorities in the country since 2011, and said that the Libyan people “are paying the price of an absurd, childish conflict between governments scattered here and there, fake, sham governments, whose only concern is forbidden gain,” as he put it. .

 

He warned against the theft of the budget that will be allocated to the reconstruction of Derna and said, “The parties that failed to spend the $2 billion they promised two years ago to reconstruct Derna as a result of its destruction will not be able to spend the ten billion that the city promised now.”

 

He talked about the disappearance of the budgets allocated to the Derna Dam and all dams in the country after 2011, estimated at hundreds of millions, pointing out that what doubled the size of the Derna disaster were the security authorities that asked the residents not to leave their homes, and the lack of authorities to take the correct action, including warning and evacuating the residents. 

 

He added: “I assure you that the problem of the displaced will not be solved, and Derna will not be reconstructed. Rather, its dam, which was built 50 years ago, will not be rebuilt. It, like Benghazi, Sirte, Tawergha, and southern Tripoli, was destroyed and has not been reconstructed yet, despite false promises.”

 

Libyan officials were subjected to a lot of criticism from citizens, especially the people of Derna, who went out a week ago in demonstrations against the current political bodies, demanding that they be held accountable, due to the failure to implement the dam repair and maintenance project for years, despite studies that warned of the possibility of it collapsing.