LEBANON’S political elite faced pressure from all sides yesterday after a deadly explosion blamed on official negligence, with two ministers quitting over the affair and angry protesters clashing with security forces.

As hopes faded of finding any survivors of Tuesday’s blast, social media was flooded with furious posts after a night that saw protesters briefly take over ministries in Beirut.

A picture went viral online showing the city’s devastated port, with a low wall in the foreground bearing the spray-painted message: “My government did this”.

While it is not known what started the fire that set off a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate, protesters said the disaster could not have happened without the corruption and incompetence that have come to define Lebanon’s ruling class.

“Those who died paid the price of a state that doesn’t care about anything except power and money,” said protester Tamara, 23, whose friend Rawan, 20, was killed in the blast.

“It’s not enough that ministers resign,” said her friend Michel. “Those who put the explosives there must be held accountable. We want an international tribunal to tell us who killed (Rawan).”

The explosion laid waste to Beirut and killed at least 158 people and injured a staggering 6,000, many bloodied by flying glass as the shockwave tore through the city.

“We have fading hopes of finding survivors,” Lebanese army Col Roger Khoury told reporters Sunday.

The catastrophe has revived the mass anti-government protests that had for months demanded the wholesale removal of Lebanon’s political elite, until coronavirus lockdown measures brought an uneasy calm.

Yesterday afternoon, hundreds gathered again in and around Martyrs’ Square, a short walk from the port.

Police fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse protesters hurling stones and shooting fireworks near a street leading to parliament, AFP correspondents said.

Demonstrators briefly took over several government ministries on Saturday night, while security forces scuffled with crowds of furious demonstrators.

Human Rights Watch’s Lebanon researcher Aya Majzoub said some security forces indiscriminately fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters.

“Instead of deploying the army to help residents clear rubble from their homes, businesses, and communities, the Lebanese authorities chose to deploy them and other security forces against protesters.”

Saturday’s violence injured 65 people, the Lebanese Red Cross reported, while lawyers supporting protesters said security forces made 20 arrests. 

The August 4 explosion came as Lebanon was already reeling from an economic crisis that has seen its currency collapse, plunging swathes of its population into poverty, and struggling with a spike in coronavirus cases.

On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron oversaw a United Nations-backed virtual donor conference to raise aid for the cash-strapped country, where some 300,000 people were rendered homeless by the disaster.

The world must respond “quickly and effectively” and ensure aid goes “as efficiently as possible to the Lebanese people”, Macron said.

In a joint statement issued after the conference, donors pledged the assistance would be “directly delivered to the Lebanese population” under the supervision of the UN. – AFP, August 10, 2020.