Why was Beirut the scene of robberies on Wednesday?

• On Wednesday morning, two activists robbed two banks in Beirut.

  They left with money that was in their own accounts.

• Since 2019, the country has been in the grip of a serious economic and political crisis.

  The Lebanese pound has lost 90% of its value and banks are severely limiting withdrawals, while suspicion weighs on the responsibility of the political class.

• To pay for huge medical care, and soon "to feed and survive", "the easy solution is robbery", laments geopolitics professor Alex Issa to "20 Minutes".

Made up, hair done, face uncovered… There is no reason to guess that Sali Hafiz is about to rob a bank.

His, located in the Sodeco district in Beirut.

The loot ?

His own money.

In the street, passers-by are not surprised by the scene.

"She's right," commented one of them.

The footage is making the rounds on social media.

At the same time, Wednesday morning, another bank in the southeast of the capital was the victim of a similar robbery.

How to explain that the Lebanese are reduced to robbing their own banks?

takes stock.

What happened Wednesday in Beirut?

It is 10:30 a.m. Wednesday morning when Sali Hafiz, a 28-year-old interior designer, enters his bank, a (plastic) pistol in his hand.

Behind her, accomplices block the main entrance, spill gasoline and film the scene.

The young woman perches on a table and asks for money.

His money.

"I asked to be given the $20,000 that has been in my account since 2015" to pay for medicine for her sister with cancer, "but the bank refuses"

she explains to

She leaves less than thirty minutes later, 12,500 dollars in her pocket, and flees.

Around the same time, Rami Charafeddine committed the same kind of robbery at BankMed in Aley, southeast of Beirut.

He leaves with 30,000 dollars before being arrested by the police.

Security forces also arrested Abdel Rahman Zakaria in Sali Hafiz's apartment.

Both are well-known activists in the “revolution” movement, which calls for regime change.

According to

, the two robberies were coordinated by activist lawyer Rami Ollaik and the association for the defense of depositors' rights Mouttahidoun.

Why are the Lebanese reduced to stealing their own money?

Since 2019, the country has been in the grip of a severe economic crisis.

Prices have soared, poverty is exploding, and the state has withdrawn from many areas including health, allowing the black market and corruption to spread.

In the case of Sali Hafiz, three factors come together.

“We are a country where people have to pay for surgery, but the bank refuses to give money.

And we are in a society where obtaining a weapon is easy, ”explains Alex Issa, teacher in geopolitics and in charge of training at IRENE of ESSEC Business School.

With bank withdrawals having been limited since 2019, Lebanese can only withdraw $200 per month in cash.

Too little for treatments worth thousands of dollars.

Above all, "we lose by getting our money back", because the exchange rate is manipulated.

“The bank gives around 8,000 pounds for a dollar instead of 37,000,” explains the man who worked for the UNDP in Lebanon to

.

Rather than spending hours waiting for a few discounted tickets, "the easy solution is the robbery", he summarizes.

Can the government get out of the crisis?

For three years, the crisis has only deepened in Lebanon.

Economic, political, religious… The situation seems inextricable, despite the demands of international organizations for governance reform.

However, "the system in place arranges the power" in a country plagued by corruption, explains Alex Issa.

“There are suspicions that the money no longer exists.

The central bank would have asked commercial banks to lend it people's money.

It would then have fallen into the hands of the political class and evaporated,” he says.

Worse, international pressure does nothing to change the problem.

"It's the people who pay when the IMF refuses to give money, the rich political class is spared", denounces the researcher.

The problem is that the Lebanese multi-confessional society does not unite, “the majority follows its religious community, its party leader who says that it is the others who are corrupt”.

However, “we are reaching a stage where people just want to eat and survive,” laments Alex Issa.

A fatalist, he fears “always more violence” and that “the social conflict becomes a religious conflict”.

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