Tag: Libya

Hisham Matar Discusses ‘My Friends’

Talk to any friends of the writer Hisham Matar, and he has many, and soon they’ll bring up one of his more notorious pastimes: Have you ever seen how he looks at art? Matar has a habit born from his early years living in London, a period of immense grief, of choosing a painting and […]

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At Least 61 Migrants Drown Off Libya, I.O.M. Says

More than 60 migrants drowned in a shipwreck off Libya, an international migrant agency said on Saturday, another chapter in the unrelenting toll in the Mediterranean Sea as people in Africa flee famine, conflict and other upheavals for distant shores. The International Organization for Migration in Libya said in a post on the social platform […]

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Libya Flooding Disaster Underlines the Country’s Corruption

The dam project broke ground in 2010, according to the government assessment from 2011 reviewed by The New York Times. By Feb. 1, 2011, just before the uprising, the project had managed only “general preparations and earthworks,” the assessment said. No concrete or asphalt had been poured, it said, no pipes laid. But Libya had […]

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After Libya Flooding, Signs Point to a Crackdown on Dissent

Authorities in flood-devastated eastern Libya appeared to be moving to muzzle dissent over the past week, arresting protesters and activists who have demanded accountability for what they say was a botched official response to the catastrophe. Torrential rains that burst two dams unleashed a flood on Sept. 11 that swept much of the coastal city […]

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East Libya’s Leader Keeps Tight Control Over Flood Aid

CAIRO — Days after a torrential downpour collapsed two aging dams and unleashed a rushing wall of water that swept parts of the Libyan city of Derna and thousands of its people into the sea, the military strongman who rules the area came for a quick visit. Khalifa Hifter, the 79-year-old renegade commander and longtime […]

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Libyan Protesters Demand Accountability After Floods Killed Thousands

Hundreds of Libyans protested on Monday from the devastated eastern city of Derna, demanding the removal of those responsible a week after torrential rains burst two dams and unleashed a catastrophe that killed thousands. Some protesters stood on the muddy, rocky earth that the floods carried through the city center on Sept. 11, washing entire […]

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Relief Efforts in Libya Turn to Disease Prevention, as Hopes for Finding Survivors Dim

Nearly a week after a powerful storm caused catastrophic flooding in northeastern Libya, rescue groups assessing the damage left behind after two dams collapsed in the city of Derna — washing entire neighborhoods out to sea — said that the death toll was still being assessed amid diminishing hopes for finding survivors. “There are still […]

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Libya Dams Were in Danger, Engineer Warned

It had been clear for years that the dams protecting Derna, on Libya’s Mediterranean coast, were in danger of giving way. Torrential rains were not new. Decade after decade, they had pounded the area, washing away the soil that helped soak up water as it ran down from the dry hills above town. Climate change […]

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Hundreds of Libya Flood Victims Buried in Mass Graves

Aid workers were engaged in a grim struggle on Friday to handle the thousands of victims of the floods that devastated Libya’s northeastern coast, burying hundreds at a time in mass graves as the chaotic response to the disaster entered its fifth day. “There are thousands of bodies,” said Sarraj bin Taher, a Red Crescent […]

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Amid Rescue Efforts After Libya Floods, a Call for Accountability

A top Libyan official has called for an investigation into the collapse of two dams in eastern Libya and the catastrophic floods that followed, pummeling parts of the country’s northeast and killing thousands. “We asked the attorney general to open a comprehensive investigation into the events of the disaster,” Mohamed al-Menfi, the head of Libya’s […]

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The Unimaginable Has Happened in Libya

This week, the worst storm in recent memory pounded the Green Mountains in eastern Libya with rain, pushing two poorly maintained, half-century-old dams to their limit. Just before 3 a.m. on Sept. 11, the first dam collapsed. An enormous wall of water surged into a riverbed that bisects the coastal city of Derna. It stalled […]

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Floods in Libya

The initial floods in northeastern Libya — after torrential rain this past weekend — were bad enough. But the worst of the damage was not a result of those floods. It has instead come from the subsequent bursting of two dams near the coastal city of Derna. The waters that those dams had been holding […]

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Thousands Feared Dead in Libya as Dam Collapses Deepen Flood Disaster

Thousands of people have been killed in Libya in the flooding caused by heavy rains that devastated parts of the country this weekend, a disaster exacerbated by the collapse of two dams in the coastal city of Derna, aid agencies said on Tuesday. Tamer Ramadan, head of the Libya delegation for the International Federation of […]

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After Prigozhin’s Death, a High-Stakes Scramble for His Empire

African leaders allied with Russia had grown used to dealing with Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the swaggering, profane mercenary leader who traveled the continent by private jet, offering to prop up shaky regimes with guns and propaganda in return for gold and diamonds. But the Russian delegation that toured three African countries last week was led […]

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