Grain silos in the port of Beirut collapse following a fire

Weakened by a fire, two silos collapsed this Sunday, July 31 in the port of the Lebanese capital.

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Damaged grain silos at the port of the Lebanese capital collapsed this Sunday, July 31 following a fire, four days before the second anniversary of the devastating explosion in this port.

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The two towers collapsed in a huge crash, drowning the port of Beirut in a cloud of dust.

Army helicopters immediately flew over the area to drop water and attempt to completely extinguish the fire in the structure.

This Sunday evening, the Minister of Public Transport, Ali Hamiyé, indicated that two other silos threatened to collapse.

Lebanese authorities had warned last week that part of the silos could collapse as the northern part of the facilities began to tilt.

A fire had been smoldering in the silos for several weeks.

Authorities say the summer heat has ignited fermenting grain that has rotted inside since

that left more than 200 people dead and 6,500 injured and ravaged entire neighborhoods of the Lebanese capital. .

Hit hard by the blast of the explosion, the grain silos of the port had partially collapsed.

Some parts still contain some 3,000 tonnes of wheat and other grains that could not be removed due to the danger of collapse, authorities said.

In April, Lebanon ordered the demolition of the silos, but the decision was suspended due to opposition from relatives of the victims of the tragedy who want to make it a place of memory.

Shortage of bread

This damage considerably reduced the storage capacities of the country which, moreover, imported 80% of its flour needs from Ukraine.

As a result, Lebanon is now affected by a serious shortage of bread.

Queues form at dawn in front of the few bakeries still supplied.

Lebanese are forced to wait in the scorching heat for hours to get a packet of bread, and friction escalates between tense and tired customers.

Again on Tuesday, the army had to intervene in a bakery stormed and vandalized by angry customers in Taalbaya, in the east of the country.

This ordeal has been going on for two weeks now, and despite promises of improvement made by the authorities, the situation continues to get worse.

Wheat is one of the few commodities that remain subsidized by the state since

that plunged more than 80% of the population into poverty, according to international organizations.

The depreciation of the Lebanese pound, which has lost 90% of its value against the dollar, and the depletion of flour stocks have favored the development of the black market, reports our correspondent in Beirut,

.

The package containing six traditional breads is sold for two and a half times its price on the parallel market.

on the pretext that it was “

” from Ukraine has thus provoked the anger of the population.

The Economy Ministry accuses some bakeries of stockpiling the subsidized flour or using it in the production of unsubsidized products.

The bakeries accuse the Central Bank of not opening sufficient lines of credit for imports.

To ensure supplies, parliament on Tuesday approved a $150 million loan from the World Bank (WB) to finance wheat imports.

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