Khalifa Haftar, who is known for his strong power in eastern Libya, has given his six sons important roles in both political and military areas. Recently, the youngest son, Saddam Haftar, has been appointed to head the Disaster Relief Management and named the top of his succession charts. This news brings more trouble for Libyans who are already suffering from the deadly floods in Derna.

In an airy room identified as the "Libyan Emergency Room," Saddam Haftar, wearing camouflage fatigues and his usual scowl, is seen examining a map of Libya alongside three Russian officials. The team arrived in eastern Libya a few days after the collapse of dams in Derna that caused a catastrophic disaster. A local news site reported that Brigadier General Saddam Haftar, head of the Libyan Emergency Room, is overseeing the search and rescue operations and staying up to date on the latest developments. The September 11 catastrophe has been compared to "Libya's 9/11."

Ibrahim Haftar, the youngest son of Khalifa Haftar, has been appointed head of the Disaster Response Committee in eastern Libya, despite having no prior experience in relief administration or management. The appointment has raised concerns due to Ibrahim's well-known reputation for embezzlement and human rights violations. His father's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) has also been accused of committing war crimes in eastern Libya. The international community will be forced to coordinate relief operations under the leadership of a strongman’s son with a documented record of corruption and human rights abuses, causing further despair for the Libyan people who have already suffered due to decades of state neglect and the recent floods in their region.

Saddam Haftar, the youngest son of Khalifa Haftar, was born in 1991 in Benghazi, Libya. His father, a former top commander in Muammar Gaddafi's army, fled into exile in the US a year before Saddam's birth. Raised by his mother in Benghazi while his father was in exile, little is known about Saddam's youth except that he did not have any secondary school qualifications.

Saddam Haftar's fortunes changed in 2011 when the anti-Gaddafi uprising brought his father back to Libya. After 2014, when his father initiated attacks on rival armed groups, triggering the second Libyan civil war, Saddam's influence started to grow. His father's Libyan National Army (LNA) gained control over the eastern Cyrenaica region, and Saddam was appointed as the head of the TBZ brigade, a powerful armed group operating under the LNA.

However, Amnesty International has documented numerous human rights violations committed by TBZ fighters, some of which may amount to war crimes. Additionally, Saddam Haftar was accused in a 2018 UN report of seizing control of the Benghazi branch of Libya's central bank and transferring substantial amounts of money and silver coins to an unknown destination.

Residents of eastern Libya have learned to avoid crossing the Haftar family, understanding it as a matter of survival. Hanan al-Barassi, a human rights lawyer and women's rights activist, was shot dead in Benghazi after she promised to expose alleged corruption involving Saddam Haftar.

While there are rumors of competition among Haftar's six sons, loyalty to the patriarch remains paramount. Saddam's elder brother, Khaled, replaced him as commander of the LNA's 106th battalion. Although Khaled is considered more polished due to his university degree, all of Haftar's sons rely on their father's military expertise.

In September, when the dams in Derna collapsed, another son, Elseddik Haftar, spoke positively of his father's leadership and expressed his openness to a future Libyan presidential bid during an interview in Paris. However, his comments contradicted the accounts of Derna residents and experts regarding the timing of the LNA's evacuation orders before the storm hit.

Saddam Haftar, the youngest son of Khalifa Haftar, is often mentioned as a potential successor to his father, who has been in control of eastern Libya for almost ten years. As the leader of the Tareq Ben Zayed brigade in his father's self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA), Saddam Haftar is notorious for seizing money from Libya's Central Bank and inflicting numerous atrocities in eastern Libya. Despite having no experience in relief administration or management, he was recently appointed as the head of the Disaster Response Committee to manage a disastrous humanitarian crisis. This means that the international community will now have to coordinate relief efforts under the leadership of a strongman's son, who has a documented history of embezzlement and human rights abuses. This situation adds to the despair and trauma faced by the Libyan people, who have already suffered from decades of neglect and the recent flooding.

Tarek Megerisi, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, has conveyed that Libyans inside the country and in diaspora are alert regarding the distribution of aid that has poured in from around the world. They are wary of corruption and the "securitisation of aid". Megerisi's views have raised concerns as he observed guilt and incompetence among the ranks present in Derna following its catastrophe. He also noted that the area was turned into a military zone and was filled with armoured personnel carriers and multiple checkpoints from the third day onwards. The reporters from foreign lands are denied access, and local reporters are unable to criticise the Haftars or their cronies. Derna's disaster has exposed the surreal displays of power by the Haftars. A few international news teams successfully entered the city and witnessed the devastating scenes caused by the floods. The youngest Haftar, Saddam Haftar, who was made the head of the Disaster Response Committee, was spotted touring Derna with armed guards in a pickup truck. Saddam's face turned irritated the moment he was asked a few questions by the Sky News team. A brief exchange between Saddam and the journalist promptly became viral, with a commentator noting "he seems annoyed he can't murder her".