Beirut wakes up in shock. In the smoking ruins of the port of the capital of Lebanon, in the middle of the gutted buildings, the rescuers tried this Wednesday to find victims. The toll of the two huge explosions, which left more than 100 dead Tuesday evening, continues to be revised upwards.
The Lebanese capital has been declared a “disaster” city. These explosions were of such power that they were recorded by the sensors of the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS) as a magnitude 3.3 earthquake. In the epicenter of the explosion, the blast of which was felt as far as the island of Cyprus, more than 200 kilometers away, the landscape remains apocalyptic: the containers look like twisted tin cans, the cars are charred , the floor strewn with suitcases and papers from neighboring offices, thrown there by the breath of the disaster.
Accountable
Even peacekeepers were seriously injured aboard a ship docked in the port, according to the UN mission in Lebanon. “It was like an atomic bomb. I have seen everything (in my life), but nothing like it, ”testified Makrouhie Yerganian, a retired professor who has lived for more than 60 years in front of the port.
Rescuers, supported by security agents, searched all night for survivors or the dead trapped under the rubble. For now, the latest death toll from the Red Cross is at least 100 dead and nearly 4,000 injured, but it could increase during the day. Hospitals in the capital, already facing the Covid-19 pandemic, are saturated.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab declared Wednesday a day of national mourning and promised that those responsible should be "held to account". The government is pointing the finger at a cargo of ammonium nitrate stored "without precautionary measures" at the port. “It is unacceptable that a cargo of ammonium nitrate, estimated at 2,750 tonnes, has been present for six years in a warehouse, without precautionary measures. It is unacceptable and we cannot be silent ”, declared the Prime Minister in front of the High Council of Defense, according to remarks reported by a spokesperson at a press conference.
International aid
Ammonium nitrate, a substance that goes into the composition of certain fertilizers but also of explosives, is a white and odorless salt used as the base of many nitrogenous fertilizers in the form of granules, and caused several industrial accidents including the explosion of the AZF factory in Toulouse, in the south-west of France, in 2001.
Many countries have offered aid to Lebanon, including France which sends several tonnes of medical equipment on Wednesday. President Emmanuel Macron announced on Twitter the dispatch of a Civil Security detachment and "several tons of medical equipment" to Beirut. The United States has also offered to help, as has Germany, which has staff from its embassy in Beirut among the wounded. Even Israel has offered evening "humanitarian and medical aid" to its Lebanese neighbor, with whom it is technically still at war.
This tragedy comes as Lebanon is experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades, marked by unprecedented currency depreciation, hyperinflation, massive layoffs and drastic banking restrictions.
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