Libya orders eight officials arrested after flood disaster

TRIPOLI: Libya´s prosecutor general has ordered the arrest of eight officials as part of his inquiry into the recent flood disaster that killed thousands, his office said on Monday.

The flash flood, which witnesses likened to a tsunami, broke through two ageing dams on September 10 after a hurricane-strength storm lashed the area around Derna, a port city in Libya´s east.

The officials are suspected of “bad management” and negligence, among other offences, a statement from the prosecutor general´s office said, adding that seven of them served currently or previously in offices responsible for water resources and dam management.

“The mistakes that they made” and their “negligence in the matter of disaster prevention” contributed to the catastrophe, the statement charged. Derna´s mayor Abdulmonem al-Ghaithi, sacked after the flood, is among the detainees.