The Akkar region in northern Lebanon found itself cut off from the world on Tuesday due to power cuts and telecommunications disruption caused by fuel shortages, two days after the deadly explosion of a fuel tank. 'gasoline.
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Lebanon is going through one of the worst economic crises in the world since the middle of the 19th century, according to the World Bank, with a multitude of shortages - of gasoline and medicines in particular - which make daily life increasingly difficult . State electricity is now cut for up to 22 hours a day. Neighborhood generators, who usually take over, are also being forced to ration power, due to fuel shortages and soaring prices.
Due to the lack of fuel,
"several regions of Akkar are experiencing an almost total disruption of land and cellular telephone networks, but also of the Internet,"
reported the National Information Agency (ANI).
These cuts affected
"the banking and financial sectors, production services, but also public and private institutions"
.
Pressure on the hospital sector
It is in this region of Akkar that a gasoline tank exploded on Sunday, killing at least 28 people and injuring nearly 80, a tragedy which increases the pressure on an already breathless hospital sector. On Tuesday, several Akkar hospitals sounded the alarm bells about fuel shortages threatening their services.
"We only have 700 liters (of fuel), a stock that is only sufficient until tomorrow,"
Riad Rahal, director of the Rahal private hospital, told AFP, fearing that his establishment in the locality of Halba does not find himself out of service. In Halba as in Qoubayat (north), telecommunications are temporarily interrupted
"because of the lack of fuel"
, said Imad Kreidieh, managing director of Ogero, a public telephone company and internet provider.
"
If the fuel crisis persists, what happens in Akkar will spread to other areas."
Gunshots in Beirut
In the southern suburbs of Beirut, shots were fired at a gas station.
The ANI agency reported
"wounded"
without further details, reporting an army deployment which arrested several of those responsible for the shooting.
According to a security source, individuals who stored their fuel at the gas station opened fire on the army, which has been hunting gasoline stocks for several days.
They started a fire at the station, accusing its owner of warning the military, according to the source.
Read also: One year after the explosion, Lebanon remains paralyzed by impunity and carelessness
In a tweet, the army said Tuesday evening that it had seized more than 4.3 million liters of gasoline and 2.2 million liters of fuel oil between Saturday and Monday. She said she had forced those who held them to sell almost all gasoline and 1.6 million liters of fuel oil to hospitals, bakeries and an electric utility, and to distribute a little more free of charge. to citizens.
