Libya pushes ahead with Derna reconstruction, yet trauma from 2023 flood remains raw
Nearly three years after a catastrophic storm tore through eastern Libya's port city of Derna, killing nearly 4,000 people, the city is slowly rising from the rubble. Yet for many, the emotional wounds remain far from healed.
New roads and bridges, thousands of homes, and a hospital have emerged where destruction once reigned. The September 2023 disaster left thousands missing and displaced more than 40,000 residents. Memories of apartment blocks split open, bodies buried under debris, and cars swept into the sea are still painfully vivid.
But reconstruction has brought a flicker of hope. Some residents say the sight of cranes and freshly paved streets helps them cope with the tragedy they endured.
Asmaa Algzhiri, who lives abroad but frequently returns to her hometown, said the loss went beyond her aunt and nephews. “Derna is a very close-knit city where everyone is connected. Even your neighbors are family,” she told AFP. She expressed astonishment at what has been built in under three years: “new hospitals, schools, mosques and a stadium.” AFP journalists confirmed multiple newly completed structures.
Yet the grief in Derna runs deep. Like many, Algzhiri has not been able to fully mourn relatives whose bodies were never recovered. She urged authorities to focus “more on mental health now.”
“It’s really important because even if people are working and carrying on with daily life, I know everyone is still traumatized,” said the 40-year-old.
Ashraf Al-Targui, a 30-year-old construction supervisor who lost his uncle’s family in the floods, said he would have “preferred to lose my house rather than loved ones.” Still, he added, the disaster was “both a tragedy and a gift from God that gave us a new city.” He noted that parks and playgrounds now scattered across Derna “are really important for people’s mental health.”
Adel Bokhsam, a reconstruction official who accompanied AFP on a tour of construction sites, said a host of projects are about 80 percent complete. They include 3,500 apartments for displaced families, nine bridges—four crossing the riverbed, some transformed into a public promenade—new roads, a desalination plant, new schools, a university, and a 600-bed hospital.
Egyptian Abdulhamid Shahata, who moved to Libya in 2014, said reconstruction has provided workers with “incredible opportunities.” “There are jobs everywhere,” said the 31-year-old father of four. “Only the lazy and the crazy can’t find work.”
Derna, long known as a center of Islamic scholarship and wary of Muammar Gaddafi’s authoritarian rule, became a stronghold of Al-Qaeda and later the Islamic State group after the 2011 uprising. In 2018, forces loyal to military strongman Khalifa Haftar seized the city. His family now controls much of eastern and southern Libya—including most oil fields—with one of his sons, Belgacem, spearheading Derna’s reconstruction.
The oil-rich country remains split between a UN-recognized government in the capital Tripoli and an eastern administration in Benghazi backed by the Haftars. The 2023 storm exposed years of neglect, particularly the deteriorating dams built in the 1970s. Public anger erupted after the disaster, with residents accusing local authorities of corruption. Some even set fire to the home of the then-mayor, a nephew of parliament speaker Aguila Salah, a Haftar ally.
The catastrophe also served as a wake-up call for the Haftars, who turned Derna into a showcase reconstruction project. They established a dedicated fund in 2024 with a budget of roughly $2 billion.
Today, Derna is a changed city, but the memory of 2023 remains bitter. Bokhsam, the reconstruction official, lost more than 15 family members: his sister, her husband, their four children, and other relatives. “No one would have thought we could live here again,” said the architectural engineer. But helping rebuild his city has offered what he calls “a new beginning.” “When I’m working, I tell myself that those souls did not die in vain.”