- On Tuesday August 4, an explosion of incredible power swept through the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
- According to the authorities, some 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, stored for six years in the port of the city, are at the origin of the explosion.
- At least 100 dead, thousands injured and hundreds of thousands homeless were recorded in the aftermath of this disaster.
After the shock and dread came “cold anger”. Installed in Beirut since 1999, Sibylle Rizk blows: “It's terrible but we thought of an attack at the beginning. When we understood what it was, we felt immense anger. There are no words to describe the level of irresponsibility of the State, ”deplores this director of public policies of the NGO Kulluna Irada. According to the Lebanese authorities, the huge explosion which devastated part of the capital and killed more than 100 people was due to a fire in a warehouse in the port of Beirut where 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate were stored.
At 29, Georges Haddad, director of the Lebanese NGO ALEF, agrees: “I'm very angry. This morning when we woke up, we were still struggling to achieve. Every time the Lebanese think they have hit rock bottom, we have the right to worse ”. The extent of the stockpile of this particularly dangerous material and its location arouse disbelief: “They kept over 2,000 tonnes of explosives in the port which is right in the middle of the city. To do that is not to take into consideration the lives of people ”, continues the young man injured in the head by the explosion.
A violent financial crisis
If the rage was palpable in the streets of the capital in the aftermath of this disaster, it is because this explosion swept through a country already plagued for several years by a series of major crises. “Lebanon has become a textbook case, the level of financial losses is so enormous. Rather than take this economic crisis head-on, the political class was content to play on a single variable: the currency. As a result, the Lebanese pound has been devalued, prices have multiplied by 4 or 5, inflation has exploded and the population has become considerably poorer ”, lists Sibylle Rizk, head of an NGO which campaigns for reform. political and economic in the land of the cedar. Before the explosion, nearly half of the Lebanese population already lived in poverty and 35% of the working population was unemployed, according to official statistics.
Heavily indebted, the State had adopted at the end of April "an economic rescue plan" and requested aid of 10 billion dollars from the IMF to regain the confidence of international creditors, worried about not seeing any structural reform succeed. "Countries like Saudi Arabia stopped funding Lebanon because they felt the then Prime Minister - Saad Hariri - was not tough enough on Hezbollah, Iran's main ally In the region. And this country has itself lowered its investments in Lebanon because of the American sanctions which weigh on its own economy, ”adds Agnès Levallois, Senior Research Fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research and Vice-President of the iReMMO (Institut de Research and Studies Mediterranean Middle East). A situation of virtual bankruptcy which has ended to worsen with the coronavirus epidemic, sighs Georges Haddad: "The Covid-19 has added a new crisis to the crisis and the economic situation is worsening day by day".
And a political bankruptcy
But this new ordeal imposed on the Lebanese above all signs, for these observers, the carelessness of a political class fed on clientelism for decades. “This explosion illustrates a system in which the state has totally failed and in which no institution operates. Over 2,000 tonnes of explosives were left in the harbor without anyone feeling responsible for anything. It is symptomatic of this political class which does not serve the general interest and which does not take its responsibilities ”, accuses Sibylle Rizk. An analysis shared by Agnès Levallois: “What happened yesterday is the culmination of a clientelist system in which the state has no authority. The existence of this stock has been known for years and no government has taken the necessary steps to deal with it. "
Tired of this situation, the Lebanese mobilized massively last October. "But lack of leadership, the movement had stopped," testifies Georges Haddad. Could Tuesday's explosion spark a new protest movement against the government? Possible according to Sibylle Rizk, “but in a second step”, she nuances, “How to go from powerlessness to action? Alternative political forces remain very embryonic for the time being. It is not only a question of being in the claim, it is necessary to have a legitimate political offer. Without it, overthrowing the system could be very difficult ”.
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Explosions in Beirut: 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate at the origin of the explosions in the port
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Explosions in Beirut LIVE: 300,000 people find themselves homeless, according to the authorities ...
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