Brief notes on Derna, Libya: Climate, corruption, displacement

On September 10, 2023, Storm Daniel pummeled the coast of Libya. The resulting catastrophe of infrastructural damage and the collapse of two dams led to the loss of lives estimated by some sources to near 20,000 people. The scale of devastation and extensive reach of flooding raises many questions surrounding aging colonial infrastructure such as dams, exacerbating climate events and the increasing vulnerability of contemporary migrancy alongside sedentary populations in low lying flood plains across the world. The essay takes the case study of Derna to foreground themes and issues shared by postcolonial states around the world whose failing infrastructures are accompanied by intensifying climate events impacting vulnerable populations along their pathways.