Protests turn violent in Lebanon amid pandemic
Lebanese protesters shout slogans on Wednesday as they gather at al-Nour Square during ongoing demonstrations in Lebanon’s northern port city of Tripoli.
Violent confrontations between protesters and security forces in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli left a 30-year-old man dead and more than 220 people injured, the state news agency said on Thursday.
Frustrations boiled over amid deteriorating living conditions and strict coronavirus lockdown measures that have exacerbated a severe economic and financial crisis, one of the worst in the Mediterranean country’s history.
The violence in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second largest city and the most impoverished, marked a serious escalation in protests that began on Monday and continued for three straight days into Wednesday night.
Dozens of young men have been taking part in the nightly protests, throwing rocks at security forces and in some cases torching vehicles.
On Wednesday, protesters repeatedly tried to break into the municipal building. Some lobbed hand grenades at security forces, who responded with water cannons, volleys of tear gas and finally, live ammunition.
The national news agency said 226 people were injured in the confrontations, including 26 police. One 30-year-old man died of his wounds. The Red Cross said it transported 35 injured people to hospitals.
On Thursday morning, security forces were bringing reinforcements and putting up barbed wire around the municipal building, known as the Serail. Two torched cars stood nearby. Shops and cafes were open and traffic appeared normal on the streets in clear defiance of the government’s lockdown measures.
Maher Atiyeh, a 39-year-old cafeteria employee, stood looking at the wreckage of his torched car. He said as the rioting picked up on Wednesday night, he got a call from police asking him to come and remove his car, parked near the municipal building.
“I didn’t make it in time, they burned my car,” he said, wearing a red baseball cap and red mask.
Atiyeh said there’s real suffering in Tripoli, the poverty is real, but added he was against protesters’ violence. “They should protest peacefully, not like this.
“The country is destroyed, people are hungry and such violence only hurts us more.”
The government has imposed a nearly monthlong nationwide lockdown and round-the-clock curfew that lasts until February 8, amid a dramatic surge in coronavirus infections.
The Lebanese currency has crashed, losing over 80 percent of its value. Unemployment and inflation have skyrocketed and tens of thousands have been thrown into poverty. About half of the country’s population is now below the poverty line.
