More than 220 people were injured Wednesday in violent clashes in Tripoli between police and demonstrators who came out for the third consecutive evening in this city in northern Lebanon to protest against health restrictions and an economic crisis that continues to deepen.
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According to the national news agency, 226 people were injured: 102 were treated or transported to hospitals in the city by the Lebanese Red Cross and 124 others by rescuers from the Islamic Medical Association.
A total of 66 people were hospitalized.
On Twitter, the police reported nine wounded in their ranks, including an officer in serious condition.
The clashes began in the afternoon when protesters threw molotov cocktails and stones at the police who responded with tear gas, according to an AFP correspondent there.
Angry demonstrators then tried to enter the interior of the Seraglio, the seat of the northern governorate, while others gathered in al-Nour Square, one of the main sites of the monster demonstrations that had taken place. known Lebanon in the fall of 2019 against the ruling class throughout its territory.
Live ammunition
In the evening, live ammunition of unknown origin was heard in the area of the protest site by the AFP correspondent, while protesters set fire to the entrance to a police building. .
"
We are here to ask for food, people are hungry,
" said Mohamad Ezzedine, a 20-year-old protester.
"
It's time for people to take to the streets,
" he added.
"
We have made the decision to continue our action, whatever the price (...) because we have nothing more to lose
", added a hooded protester.
“
We live in miserable conditions.
I knocked on all doors, but found no job,
”added the 25-year-old unemployed.
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After several hours of clashes, the security forces and the Lebanese army deployed reinforcements around the Seraglio and in al-Nour Square to disperse the demonstrators and prevent them from storming the seat of the governorate.
Protesters took refuge in the adjacent alleys where clashes continued late into the evening.
Already Tuesday evening, clashes between demonstrators on the one hand and security forces and soldiers on the other hand had left 45 wounded, against 30 the day before, according to the Lebanese Red Cross.
Violence broke out in this town, near the Syrian border.
FATHI AL-MASRI / AFP
Unemployment
Tripoli was already one of the poorest cities in Lebanon before the outbreak of the new coronavirus and the lockdowns decreed by the authorities in nearly a year, which worsened the living conditions of its inhabitants.
Many inhabitants of this city, in particular day laborers, have found themselves without income since the start of the last confinement.
In addition to the health situation, Lebanon is stuck in its most serious economic crisis since the end of the civil war (1975-1990) with a historic depreciation of its currency, hyperinflation and massive layoffs.
Half of the population now lives in poverty, facing a ruling class accused of being absent subscribers.
So far limited to the city of Tripoli alone, the protest movement against the containment spread on Tuesday and Wednesday evening, with protesters blocking certain roads in other regions.
In the capital Beirut, protesters set tires on fire in front of a wall separating Riad el-Solh square in the city center from Parliament, while others blocked the road to the sports city using dumpsters garbage and burning tires, the national news agency said.
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Lebanon, with a population of six million, has so far recorded 289,660 cases, of which 2,553 have been fatal.
As the hospital sector is under strong pressure with the explosion in the number of infections with Covid-19, the authorities are seeking to increase the number of beds available for infected people.
In the fall of 2019, this country experienced a protest movement unprecedented in its scale against a ruling class accused of being corrupt, incompetent and indifferent.
The protest had gradually subsided before fading completely with the spread of Covid-19 and the confinements imposed by the authorities.
Lebanon has been waiting for a new government since August, for lack of understanding between the ruling parties, despite strong local and international pressure.
The army intervened in Tripoli.
OMAR IBRAHIM / REUTERS