Faculty, students rally to rebuild Derna after flood disaster

Staff and students at the University of Derna in eastern Libya have rallied to repair an institution devastated by the floods that tore through its home city and port Derna on 11 September 2023. The torrents seriously damaged the university faculty of education building, while killing 12 professors and 28 staff members. Altogether 286 students have officially been declared dead, and many bodies have not yet been discovered.

The floods were prompted by heavy rains and dams that burst because they were not repaired during the chaos in the country since former dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was forced from power in 2011. The release of water into the city centre killed 11,300 people and 10,100 are missing, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The floods also seriously damaged the arts faculty, said Dr Sirag Shinnieb, a professor of English. He said that, after the floods, at the request of the government controlling eastern Libya, the university president, Dr Nasser Eyad Almansouri, had a meeting with remaining meeting faculty members to devise a plan to restart operations at the university.

The Benghazi-based Government of National Stability runs the region, appointed by a House of Representatives, but that lacks international recognition given to the Government of National Unity in Tripoli.

University helped rescue city

Initially, the university accommodated all classes in two buildings, but this meant that space and the teaching schedule were overcrowded, and each course’s teaching times were reduced to about two hours each day.

Hamza al Mansoori, an accountancy lecturer in the faculty of economics, told University World News the economics faculty building suffered only minor water damage and some damage to its gardens. The building and that of the faculty of law in the Shiha district are outside of the main flood zone. He said that the school of medicine in the Bab Tabraq area did not suffer badly either, due to the same reason.

“Despite all the difficulties caused by this flood, Derna University was among the active institutions in the city, participating in all activities related to rescuing the city at various levels, whether by evacuating people, setting up field hospitals, and now undertaking the psychological rehabilitation of the city’s residents through seminars, lectures and cooperation with all relevant authorities to bring the city to the best possible state,” Mansoori said.

“The University of Derna has made every effort to provide a safe and easily accessible environment for all students to take their exams. The university has young and distinguished leaders who have risen to the occasion throughout the flood period.”

After a difficult start, Mansoori said, new students have been admitted “and things are going well”, noting that he was currently staging a final exam for first-year students for this semester.

Damage to roads a headache

Regarding the financial cost of the flood to the university, Mansoori said: “There are no comprehensive estimates yet of the full financial impact for the repairs, rebuilding and equipment replacement needed.”

However, work has begun on constructing a large new building in the Al-Fatih area, he said, which will house the university’s main administrative headquarters. It will also accommodate the faculty of education temporarily until its previous campus has been repaired. “It is currently undergoing debris removal and renovation for rebuilding,” Mansoori said.

Planned construction projects have also restarted, and a new mosque opened in February 2024. New teaching laboratories in the school of medicine were opened on 24 February 2024 by the eastern government”s health minister Dr Othman Abdel Jalil, despite parts of the school being damaged by the flood.

The biggest challenge facing students remains the severe damage to roads and infrastructure, seriously impeding commuting to the university or between campuses. Indeed, Shinnieb said that it can take up to two hours to cross the city, which is small with a population of around 90,000.

Political division hampers efforts

Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar, leader of his self-styled Libyan National Army, and a major political force in the eastern government, visited the university on 26 January 2024 to look at newly completed construction works on the new campus that are still standing. Many of these were completed only after years of lobbying.

Construction came to a standstill after Gaddafi’s fall in 2011. Staff and students appealed to Haftar to support their efforts to continue repairing the flood damage while continuing with other development projects. Shinnieb said the main result was a donation of 10 buses to help facilitate student transport. However, vehicles struggle on roads that are now little more than sandy dirt tracks. Meanwhile, debris still lies strewn across the campus and city, and power outages continue.

Libya’s divided political sector prevents a coordinated national response to the floods. The UN-recognised government in the western capital, Tripoli, led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid al-Dbeibah, has access to international funds from donors. However, al-Dbeibah has no influence or power in eastern Libya where Derna is situated.

A Tunis-based consultant on Libya speaking to University World News explained that, with the eastern Libyan authorities unrecognised even by their sympathetic neighbour Egypt, universities in the east struggle to tap into international financing and practical support, forcing them to seek help from local political leaders.

That means currying favour with Haftar, who has made the regional capital, Benghazi, his power base, more than 300km from Derna. Haftar controls some of Libya’s oil production. The proceeds are used to finance a Derna Reconstruction Fund, whose executive director is the field marshal’s son, Belgassim, the consultant said. The Fund for Reconstruction has confirmed plans to build accommodation for 2,000 university students at Derna University, along with expanding faculty buildings while repairing flood damage.

Staff suffered tremendous trauma

Mansoori said: “Derna University has cooperated with all the relevant authorities, particularly the Derna Reconstruction Fund, which has undertaken serious and genuine efforts to carry out the necessary maintenance for the university’s facilities. This reflects the level of cooperation and efforts dedicated to supporting and developing the University of Derna.”

Meanwhile, Shinnieb told University World News that the university has been mourning its flood deaths. “We lost 12 colleagues. We studied together in the UK.” He explained that among them were deans of colleges, who were key to running and managing their faculties and the university overall. “One of the victims of the flood, Rafiq al Aghrabi, was dean of the science college, so he was responsible for 11 departments – he was very important.”

Dr Naji Al Mansoury has since been appointed in Al Aghrabi’s place and has already started teaching, among other tasks, Shinnieb said.

Some faculty members suffered immense trauma. “Dr Yasser al Dali, the dean of the engineering college, survived through a miracle. His house was destroyed, submerged by the water. He was swept away in the flood; he told me he was unconscious while he was carried along but was being swept into the branches of a tree and that saved him.”

Many still unaccounted for

The horrors did not end when the flood waters receded. Dali required psychological treatment, but is doing well now, Shinnieb said. Like so many people from Derna, Dali put aside his pain to volunteer, working alongside others collecting bodies.

Many students are still missing. “We suspect many more, possibly over 500, but, according to Libyan law, we cannot count a person officially dead until their body has been found,” Shinnieb said.

Aside from the impact on the university, few staff or students were untouched by tragedy or grief.

“I lost my only son of 20 years who was studying economics. He was swept away by the water,” said Shinieb, who considers himself luckier than those whose loved ones have disappeared without a trace, “as I found his body the same day. That gave me some comfort that I found him, but still, I lost him.”

Like many people in Derna, the sense of loss continues. “Today was the first Iftar of Ramadan. My family and wife – we were all looking at the place where my son used to sit,” Shinnieb said.

Colleagues, family, and students have all been supportive and cooperated with the families of university victims, allowing space for grief but not allowing anybody to sink into loneliness or despair, he said.

University World News requested comment from the Benghazi-based government’s Ministry of Higher Education, but officials did not respond.