Earlier this month two dams collapsed after torrential rain in eastern Libya. Whole neighbourhoods in the city of Derna were swept into the sea. More than 15,000 Libyans are dead or missing and the full death toll may never been known. Since the ousting of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has been riven by power struggles and currently has two governments - a UN-recognised one based in Tripoli, and another in the country's east backed by General Khalifa Haftar. He has been calling the flooding a natural disaster but many Libyans disagree, saying the eastern government had neglected the dams despite prior warnings about their fragile condition. There have been protests in Derna against the leadership in the region but anger is also being expressed across the country. The anguish and anger across Libya have now developed into demands for an investigation. But who will conduct this investigation? Libya is rich in oil wealth but the country's infrastructure is crumbling and the elites are increasingly accused of rampant corruption. Could this be a reset moment for Libya? Shaun Ley is joined by: Mary Fitzgerald - A writer and researcher focused on Libya and non-resident scholar for the Middle East Institute think tank. Tarek Megerisi - Senior policy fellow with the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Elham Saudi - Co-founder and Director of Lawyers for Justice in Libya, an NGO focusing on accountability, human rights and the rule of law in Libya. Also in the programme: Othman Abdul Jalil - Minister for health for the Eastern Libyan government. Noura El-Jerbi - A Libyan journalist from Derna but now living in Turkey. Produced by Ellen Otzen and Zak Brophy Image: A view from the area as search and rescue efforts continuing in disaster zones after the floods in Derna. Credit: Hamza Al Ahmar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images.
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And this week in Libya, torrential rain and the disintegration of two dams recently flooded the coastal city of Derna, sweeping entire neighborhoods into the sea.
One doctor told the BBC that many survivors were traumatized by what they've been through.
I can tell you that these people have become ghosts on the ground.
They're barely walking.
Some people have lost 50 members of their own families.
I've seen children with my own eyes.
That were flooding in the sea.
And I witnessed two civil war wars in this country.
All right, but this, nothing like this.
Nothing like this.
This man drove to Derna to look for his relatives, only to discover that 150 of them had perished in the flood.
No picture, no film can ever describe what, what we've seen.
Hundreds of bodies laid on the street, on the, what used to be streets.
The whole buildings were out as if it's never been there.