Lebanon : Drivers Block Roads amid Mounting financial Crisis
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Roshan Amiri
- . January 14, 2022
- . Update: January 15, 2022 1:25 pm
Lebanon– Lebanon’s public transportation drivers shut down highways on Thursday, slowing traffic across the nation in protest of currency manipulation that has left them out of pocket. “We can hardly afford hospitalization or medicine,” a driver in central Beirut stated. We’re imploring healthcare associations to protect our rights, which the government is obliged to protect.”
Banks were closed on Thursday due to the inability of staff to come to work, while schools and institutions were also shuttered. The price of a 20-liter canister of gasoline has grown tenfold in less than a year after subsidies were removed, to about 400,000 Lebanese pounds ($264), but the minimum monthly pay of 675,000 pounds has remained steady.
“Our complaint with the state is the rise in the exchange rate,” said Fadi Abou Shakra, a spokesman of Lebanon’s gasoline wholesalers who took part in the demonstrations. Officials did little to stop unlawful platforms from rigging the currency exchange rate. It is not our pastime to obstruct traffic and cause issues. Today is an angry day, and we’ll see what the rest of the week brings.” After clashes erupted between demonstrators and members of the public attempting to utilize the blocked roadways, soldiers and other security personnel were dispatched to maintain order.
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Bechara Al-Asmar, the leader of the General Labor Union, backed the demonstrators, calling the action “a scream for authorities to execute their responsibilities and obligations toward the people.” The protestors’ demands centered on retaining bread, fuel, and other essential necessities subsidies, he said, adding that he was dismayed by the limited number of individuals who took part in the demonstration.
Several public transportation drivers claimed they were opposed to the demonstration and would not participate, despite the fact that they were not linked with the groups who organized it. “Today is focused at the government, which has not fulfilled its pledges to promote the land transport industry and end infractions,” said Bassam Tlais, president of the Land Transport Union. We are unconcerned with politics or the reasons for the Cabinet’s inability to meet.”
The demonstrations on Thursday were connected to a Cabinet deadlock created by ministers from Hezbollah and the Amal Movement skipping meetings, according to political experts. Unionists loyal to one of the two parties control the trade unions. Meanwhile, around daybreak on Thursday, a massive explosion shook the Nabatiyeh area.
“A fire broke out in a private energy generator,” the National News Agency of Lebanon said. The flames immediately spread to a cafe’s fuel tank near Wadi Houmine. The fire spread to other regions, causing mines, cluster bombs, and old unexploded ordnance from the Israeli incursion in July 2006 to detonate.” Fires broke out in the adjacent woodlands, according to residents in Houmine, Roumine, and Deir Ez-Zahrani. Others said that Hezbollah militants raced to the explosion site and blocked off the area, preventing journalists from getting too near.
