Grief and wrath as Lebanon marks year since deadly blast

GBNews24 Desk//

Lebanon on Wednesday marks a year since a cataclysmic explosion ravaged Beirut, with a mix of grief over lost lives and rage at the impunity for its worst peacetime disaster at a time when its economy was already in tatters.

Shortly after 6:00 pm on August 4, 2020, a stock of ammonium nitrate fertiliser haphazardly stored at the city’s port exploded and left swathes of the Lebanese capital looking like a war zone.

What went down as one of the largest non-nuclear blasts in history killed at least 214 people, levelled entire neighbourhoods and irreparably scarred the nation’s psyche as well deepening the country’s economic abyss.

With more than half the country living under the poverty line, former colonial power France aims to raise humanitarian aid at another international conference co-hosted by the UN on the day of the anniversary. President Emmanuel Macron hopes to gather $350 million.

Families of the dead and survivors have planned vigils, prayers, ceremonies and marches to honour those who perished in a blast whose shockwave was felt as far away as Cyprus.

Port workers were buried under gutted grain silos, firefighters battling the fire that preceded the blast were pulverised, commuters crushed to death and residents lacerated by supersonic shards of glass bled out in their homes.

Many will stay home on what was declared a national day of mourning, but last year’s shock soon gave way to an anger that has only grown with every day the crime stays unpunished.

The country’s already reviled political class has hidden behind its proclaimed immunity to avoid prosecution, stalling the lead investigating judge’s work at every turn.

In a press conference on Monday, relatives of blast victims called on authorities to lift immunity within three days, warning that they are willing to “break bones” in upcoming protests.