Foreign

Thousands of Lebanese furious with their political leaders will later take to Beirut’s streets, four days after a huge explosion left at least 154 dead.

Tuesday’s blast at the port devastated parts of the city and has reignited deep-seated anger at what many see as an inept and corrupt political class.

The explosion was caused by a huge stock of ammonium nitrate that had been seized from a ship but never moved.

The government has promised to find those responsible.

But there is a huge level of mistrust in Lebanon, where an anti-government protest movement erupted last October, fuelled by an economic crisis and a collapsing currency.

Two ministers who attempted to visit badly damaged neighbourhoods in recent days were chased out.

“After three days of cleaning, removing rubble and licking our wounds… it is time to let our anger explode and punish them,” Fares Halabi, a 28-year-old activist, told the AFP news agency ahead of Saturday’s protests.

A march will travel from one of the most devastated areas near the port to Martyrs’ Square, the heart of the anti-government uprising that began last year.

Apart from showing the city’s anger, it is also meant to remember victims of the explosion, which injured 5,000 and left some 300,00 homeless.

BBC

Foreign

People in Beirut have expressed anger at the government over what they say was negligence that led to Tuesday’s huge explosion.

President Michel Aoun said the blast was caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored unsafely in a warehouse.

Many have accused the authorities of corruption, neglect and mismanagement.

The blast killed at least 137 people and injured about 5,000 others, while dozens are still missing. A two-week state of emergency has begun.

“Beirut is crying, Beirut is screaming, people are hysterical and people are tired,” filmmaker Jude Chehab told the BBC, calling for the people responsible to face justice.

Chadia Elmeouchi Noun, a Beirut resident currently in hospital, said: “I’ve known all the time that we are led by incompetent people, incompetent government […] But I tell you something – what they have done now is absolutely criminal.”

On Wednesday, the government announced that a number of Beirut port officials were placed under house arrest pending an investigation into the explosion.

The country’s Supreme Defence Council insisted that those found responsible would face the “maximum punishment”.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called for an independent investigation into the blast. In a statement, HRW said it had “serious concerns about the ability of the Lebanese judiciary to conduct a credible and transparent investigation on its own”.

BBC