Dozens of Lebanese set fire to bank branches after a new currency crash

The anger of the Lebanese with the banks has risen a dangerous step this Thursday.

At least six bank branches have been torched in Beirut after the national currency further plunged to lose 98% of its value.

The attacks take place after months of

with which dozens of clients have recovered part of their savings, subjected to a corralito, by force, with firearms and gasoline cans.

Since 2019, the country has been plunged into a deep economic crisis ―defined by the World Bank as one of the most serious in the world in a century and a half― that has triggered the migration to Europe of both the Lebanese themselves and Syrian refugees in the country. .

In the images, in the Badaro neighborhood of Beirut, different people can be seen setting tires on fire and directing them at branches, throwing Molotov cocktails, smashing shop windows with hoes, or graffitiing phrases like: "Lebanese banks are thieves."

Dozens of protesters have also looted branches in the city of Tripoli, blocked roads in other parts of the country and held a protest in front of the residence of the president of the banking association, Salim Sfeir.

El Grito de los Ahoradores, one of the organizations that represents the 6.9 million inhabitants of the country who can only withdraw 100 dollars (93.5 euros) per week per month, has claimed responsibility for the action.

The banks have been closed to the public since the 7th, on strike due to a sentence that obliges one of them to pay a cash deposit.

The exchange rate of the local currency, the pound, against the dollar was 1,500 before the crisis.

Just two months ago it was at 43,000 in the parallel market.

This Thursday it has climbed to 80,000, 10,000 more than just two days ago.

Government measures have not prevented the collapse in a country where 80% of the population is below the poverty line and public debt accounts for 180% of GDP.

The International Monetary Fund demands a series of reforms to disburse 3,000 million dollars.

Added to the economic crisis is political paralysis: the country has been without a president for almost four months.

Parliament has held 11 sessions without agreeing on a replacement for Michel Aoun.

The leader of the Hezbollah party-militia, Hasan Nasrallah, assured this Thursday, in a speech commemorating the "Martyrs of the Resistance", that "there is no news" in this regard and that the solution to the problem requires "an agreement internal".

"The world cannot impose a president on Lebanon", he stressed, after recalling that the meeting of the ambassadors of the United States, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Egypt to address the issue, on the 6th in Paris, concluded whitout deal.

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