Clashes took place Monday evening in Tripoli (north of Lebanon) between the army and hundreds of demonstrators demanding a radical change in the face of the economic crisis. Despite the confinement decreed in the country facing the epidemic of coronavirus, men, women and children marched in the streets, with cries of “Revolution! Revolution!" , noted an AFP correspondent.
The demonstrators were repulsed by the army when they wanted to join the house of a parliamentarian to whom they were hostile. Some demonstrators threw stones, the army responded with shots in the air to disperse the crowd in the area of al-Nour square. According to the National Information Agency (official), the window of a bank was broken. The army reported fires in several banks, and the throwing of a Molotov cocktail on a military vehicle. The Red Cross said it transported three people to the hospital and treated others there.
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Lebanon is facing its worst economic crisis since the civil war (1975-1990), and the global pandemic has only worsened the problems. The fall of the Lebanese pound is fueling inflation which has aggravated the difficulties for the population, especially in a city like Tripoli, where more than half of the population lives below the poverty line. This port city was one of the centers of contestation in the vast demonstrations against corruption and carelessness of the authorities which had erupted in October 2019.
Also Monday evening, the central bank's premises in Sidon (south) were targeted by stones and firecrackers, according to the National Information Agency. It was in this city on Saturday evening that an explosive device had been thrown against a bank.
Friday was announced a drop of $ 5.7 billion in bank deposits in the country in the first two months of the year, while withdrawals are supposed to be capped and international transfers prohibited.