Lebanon: after deadly clashes, residents of Tayouneh neighborhood in despair
Audio 01:22
Mohammed on the sofa in his living room, after the exchange of fire in the heart of Beirut, October 14, 2021. © Noé Pignède / RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
In Lebanon, violent clashes took place this Thursday in the capital Beirut, between sympathizers of the Amal party and snipers, probably Christian militias.
For several hours, fire from Kalashnikovs, snipers and rocket launchers rang out in the Tayouneh district, on the old demarcation line between Shiite and Christian dating from the Lebanese civil war.
The fighting left six dead and fifty wounded.
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With our correspondent in Beirut,
Noé Pignède
After several hours of clashes, the Tayouneh roundabout has regained its calm.
The Lebanese army has completely sealed off the neighborhood.
In this historic district of the Lebanese civil war, where the line of demarcation between Shiite and Christian militias once stood, this outbreak of violence is reviving bad memories. Nesrine Sayed is 44 years old. She lives in a building a few meters from where the fighting took place between Amal and Hezbollah supporters on one side and still unidentified shooters on the other Thursday afternoon. With her husband, she spent four hours hiding in a hallway.
I got home very early this morning from work, I was supposed to go to workout at 11am and at 10:45 am the shooting started.
It didn't stop, it was non-stop.
I was with my husband at the house, but it is a small apartment, we had to stay in the hallway.
At noon, there was the power cut and we didn't even have the information but we could hear, everyone was calling us to see if we were okay.
We felt the tension was building and we heard a few bombs, I guess.
We had memories, it was the start of the war.
It was exactly the same in '75, but we hope it won't start again.
Nesrine Sayed
Located on the line of fire, Mohammed and his family's apartment was severely hit by militia fire.
His windows are smashed, the walls of his living room covered with bullet holes.
“
It’s horrible.
We are civilians, Christians and Muslims who live together.
I hope all Lebanese are against it.
They want to live together.
"
Ismaël, who works in the building opposite, has a more pessimistic speech.
“
There is no future for anyone here.
Every day, we have proof of it.
Look what happened today.
Politicians manipulate people, use them like cannon fodder.
They control everyone here.
I have already known the war in Lebanon.
And when I look at what's going on now, I understand that history is repeating itself.
"
A little further, Youssef, 62, is a veteran of the civil war.
A former Christian militiaman, he also laments the outbreak of violence that has rocked his neighborhood.
“
I lived through the war and I hope we don't come back to that stage because it's really sad.
We hope things will get better, we'll see, we have to wait.
"
But once our microphone is off, the militiaman confides that he no longer believes in reconciliation between Shiite and Christian militias in his neighborhood and concludes: here, everyone is preparing for war.
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Lebanon