Explosions in Beirut: a cargo ship and its load at the heart of the investigation

A Moldovan freighter, and a lot of questions. This ship is the Rhosus, which left Georgia in 2013 for Mozambique, with 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate on board. This is precisely the cargo seized six years ago by the Lebanese authorities, stored in warehouse number 12 of the port of Beirut and which exploded on Tuesday, killing at least 150 people and injuring 5,000.

Owned by a Russian businessman, the Rhosus was not seaworthy at the time. Before even passing through Lebanese waters, a mutiny had broken out there. Supposed to embark construction equipment in Beirut, the ship had therefore finished a career of nearly forty years there, the local authorities reproaching its owner for not having paid the port taxes. It is in this same port that the boat would have sunk, after its cargo was unloaded.

All pass the hot potato

For six years, port authorities, customs and security services have blamed themselves for these bulky fertilizers. According to AFP, repeated complaints about odors emanating from the hangar prompted the state security to launch an investigation in June 2019. This had concluded that it was necessary to move these “dangerous materials” and to seal cracks appeared in hangar 12. A few hours before the tragedy, workers were just carrying out welding work which could have been at the origin of the explosion.

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At least 16 officials from the port, customs, as well as those responsible for the renovation site have already been detained. In addition, Lebanon's central bank ordered, as part of the investigation, a freeze on the assets of seven senior officials, including those of the director of customs, Badri Daher. Many voices are calling for this investigation to be international in order to guarantee its impartiality. "Due to the mistrust of many citizens with regard to government institutions, as well as failures in certain surveys carried out in the past, an independent investigation with the participation of international experts is needed", warns Aya Majzoub, researcher on Lebanon for the NGO Human Rights Watch.

Asked by the daily "l'Orient le jour", the Lebanese President, Michel Aoun, said on Friday that the terrible explosion was due "either to negligence or to an external intervention", evoking the hypothesis "of a missile or bomb ”.