It has been exactly a year since Storm Daniel hit Libya’s eastern coastal city of Derna, destroying two of its dams and causing the country's worst flooding in more than a century, killing thousands and damaging infrastructure, homes, hospitals and roads.
But despite some efforts to rebuild since the disaster, a lot more is needed to restore a sense of normality to the area, the UN has warned.
“In the last year, you can see that there has been a lot of reconstruction. There is still some rubble and debris that needs to be cleared. Much has been done but more needs to be done,” UN resident and humanitarian co-ordinator in Libya, Georgette Gagnon, said in a video published on X on Tuesday following a visit to Derna and other affected areas.
Ms Gagnon described the natural disaster as tragic and underscored the need for affected families “to regain their lives”.
During a visit to Derna on Monday, Stephanie Khoury, charge d’affaires of the UN's mission in Libya, reaffirmed the importance of reconstruction.
She called on the Benghazi and Tripoli authorities to put aside their differences and “work together in the best interests of the affected people and to ensure transparency, oversight and accountability in reconstruction efforts”, she said on X.
The storm was one of Africa’s deadliest natural disasters in modern history.
The UN estimates Storm Daniel – which led to the bursting of the Bilad and Sidi Bou Mansour dams after an unprecedented 400mm of rain was recorded in 24 hours – killed more than 5,000 people, left thousands uncounted for and displaced at least 40,000 others. The cities of Benghazi, Al Bayda, Al Marj and Sousse were also affected.
On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch issued a report which condemned authorities’ failure to ensure accountability and inadequate relief and support efforts on the ground.
“Displaced residents from Derna and other eastern Libyan towns, whose lives were upended after the calamity, face burdensome and often impossible hurdles accessing any kind of state support,” Hanan Salah, associate Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in the report.
The rights group said it has spoken to at least 16 survivors, who are currently displaced in the western city of Misurata and complained of dire living conditions and the challenges they continue to face to obtain government support.
The two dams were built in the 1970s by a Yugoslavian company – mainly using rock, clay and concrete – to control seasonal floods. The structures have reportedly not been maintained since 2002, Derna deputy mayor Ahmed Madroud said shortly after the disaster.
On a visit to affected areas of Derna last week, Belguacem Haftar, son of Field Marshal Khalifa Hafta, claimed more than 70 per cent of infrastructure in the city had been rebuilt.
“We have completed 2,000 housing units and we are currently preparing 1,500 more,” AFP reported him as saying.
Mr Haftar indicated that maintenance of electricity networks, roads and other vital areas of infrastructure were under way.
Lack of accountability
In July, the attorney general of the Tripoli-based government announced the Derna Criminal Court, which technically it has no control over, had sentenced 12 officials to between nine and 27 years in prison. Charges ranged from negligence to premeditated murder and wasting public money.
Three other accused were ordered to “return money obtained from illicit gains”, while four were acquitted.
Libya is still grappling with the impact of more than 10 years of armed conflict after the overthrow of dictator Muammar Qaddafi’s regime by western-backed forces in 2011.
The country remains locked in a power struggle between two rival governments, one in Tripoli which enjoys the support of the international community and the other in Benghazi under the control of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and his family. It controls the eastern and southern side of the country including vital oilfields and jurisdiction over Derna.
Tarek Megerisi, a Libya analyst and senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told The National there had been no accountability over reconstruction efforts.
“What needs to be done is to have an independent review to see what happened to the reconstruction, the budget allocated to the dam but not actually being spent, and you need to have a proper inquiry on what happened and proper process of restitution to the people who suffered,” he said.
The Benghazi government received a large budget from the central bank for rebuilding Derna but there has been no transparency on spending, he added. “A lot of people do not have answers for family members that disappeared," he said. “The army stopped the health ministry from counting deaths above a certain limit.”
Brief scores:
Everton 0
Leicester City 1
Vardy 58'
Race 3
Produced: Salman Khan Films and Tips Films
Director: Remo D’Souza
Cast: Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez, Bobby Deol, Daisy Shah, Saqib Salem
Rating: 2.5 stars
Tickets
Tickets start at Dh100 for adults, while children can enter free on the opening day. For more information, visit www.mubadalawtc.com.
Recent winners
2002 Giselle Khoury (Colombia)
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2007 Grace Bijjani (Mexico)
2008 Carina El-Keddissi (Brazil)
2009 Sara Mansour (Brazil)
2010 Daniella Rahme (Australia)
2011 Maria Farah (Canada)
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2014 Lia Saad (UAE)
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2017 Dima Safi (Ivory Coast)
2018 Rachel Younan (Australia)
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What is Reform?
Reform is a right-wing, populist party led by Nigel Farage, a former MEP who won a seat in the House of Commons last year at his eighth attempt and a prominent figure in the campaign for the UK to leave the European Union.
It was founded in 2018 and originally called the Brexit Party.
Many of its members previously belonged to UKIP or the mainstream Conservatives.
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Former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson became its first MP after defecting in March 2024.
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- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
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- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
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- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
- Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
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Fixtures and results:
Wed, Aug 29:
- Malaysia bt Hong Kong by 3 wickets
- Oman bt Nepal by 7 wickets
- UAE bt Singapore by 215 runs
Thu, Aug 30: UAE v Nepal; Hong Kong v Singapore; Malaysia v Oman
Sat, Sep 1: UAE v Hong Kong; Oman v Singapore; Malaysia v Nepal
Sun, Sep 2: Hong Kong v Oman; Malaysia v UAE; Nepal v Singapore
Tue, Sep 4: Malaysia v Singapore; UAE v Oman; Nepal v Hong Kong
Thu, Sep 6: Final
Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
