The streets of the Libyan city of Derna, with about 100,000 inhabitants, began to feel the weight of the rain due to the arrival of Cyclone Daniel last Sunday. It was then that the poet Mustafa al Trabelsi, son of the town located on the shores of the Mediterranean, in the east of the country, and with a tragic distant past of floods, shared his latest poem on his Facebook profile under the title “The rain.” .
Expose the wet streets
the cheating contractor
and the failed state.
washes everything
the wings of the birds
and cat hair.
Remember the poor
its thin roof
and his tattered clothes.
Wake up to the valleys,
shake off the yawning dust
and dry teeth.
The rain
a sign of goodness,
a promise of help,
an alarm bell.
Hours after writing those verses, during the early morning, the collapse of the two dams, which had been built 50 years ago to protect the city, caused a tsunami of water and mud that swept away a quarter of the city and killed at least 11,000 people, while more than 10,000 remain missing. Al Trabelsi was one of them. The destructive torrent drowned out the voice of the cultural activist whose words are shared these days by Libyans on social networks.
Many read his words as a premonition, since the poet was aware of the poor state of the dams due to years of neglect on the part of the authorities, in a failed state resulting from the conflict. A graduate of the Omar Al Mukhtar University, Trabelsi had participated on September 6 in a symposium organized by the Derna House of Culture, where the danger of floods threatening the city and the state of its depressed dams were discussed.
Sensing what was coming, Trabelsi wrote some last words on his Facebook profile: “We only have each other in this difficult situation. Let’s support each other so we don’t drown.” In another publication, the poet warned “the scenes are scary, things can escalate to a disaster and we are under the orders of a corrupt tyrant, who says he is prepared, but has no rescue team.” It is unknown which leader he was referring to.
Years of war and lack of a central government – ??the country is divided into rival governments, one in the east and one in the west – have left Libya with infrastructure vulnerable to heavy rains. Both administrations have asked the attorney general to investigate the disaster. “Those whose actions or inaction were responsible for the dam failure must be held accountable, along with anyone who withheld aid,” wrote Mohamed al-Menfi, a leader representing the east of the country on the three-member council that acts as presidency of the internationally recognized government of Libya.
