Lebanese PM: “This catastrophe will not pass without accountability”

Lebanon is grappling with the fallout from a vast explosion that shook the city of Beirut yesterday. The immediate impact has been devastating – the trading port of Lebanon’s capital city was entirely engulfed by the eruption. The port itself, which accounts for the largest volume and value of trade goods in the country, has been levelled, its infrastructure destroyed.

Civilians have also paid a heavy price across the city. Windows up to fifteen miles away from the blast site were shattered, while buildings in the historic Gemmayzeh district of the city – buildings that survived the country’s civil war – were badly damaged. At least 73 people have lost their lives while a further 3,700 are believed to be injured. A two-week state of emergency has been declared.

The event is a bitter blow – a strike at the economic heart of a country already struggling with an inflationary economic crisis and the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. The aftershocks from this disaster will continue to haunt the city – and the country – for many years to come.

The precise cause of the explosion, which erupted into the sky in a mushroom cloud of crimson red smoke, is not yet entirely clear. But a  picture is emerging of gross government incompetence and oversight; of a man-made catastrophe caused by a cache of explosive materials kept in the very place, which provides the beating heart of Lebanese trade.

Major General Abbas Ibrahim, the head of Lebanon’s General Security Directorate, has told local television that this terrible blast was caused by “high explosive materials”. Prime Minister Hassan Diab has suggested that the vast explosion was the result of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, an agricultural fertiliser, being stored over many years in a warehouse within the port. More details continue to emerge about how this shipment of ammonium nitrate arrived at the port and how its presence was known to authorities since 2014.

The news has been met with an outpouring of grief and sadness from Lebanese people in Beirut and across the world. The governor of the city, Marwan Abboud, with tears in his eyes, declared it to be a “national catastrophe” to reporters near the scene: “In my life, I haven’t seen destruction on this scale”. He added with sadness, “I don’t know how we will recover from this”.

To give a sense of the dreadful scale of the impact on Beirut and its civilians, Luna Safwan, an independent journalist in the city explained: “Historically – this is the strongest and most catastrophic explosion to hit the capital…I remember PM Rafic Hariri’s assassination in Beirut…I also remember the 2006 war in Lebanon and the sound of airstrikes and damage. Today was worse.”

This latest calamity has fallen upon a city that has already experienced too many tragedies in its recent history, including the civil war between 1975-1990. On Reaction today Robert Fox provides an essential primer on the tortured sectarian politics that has troubled the country.

Yesterday’s explosion has placed the country’s healthcare services under severe strain, as thousands of civilians with cuts and wounds caused by the blast have sought emergency medical care.

Danny Hajjar, a former Beirut resident and political communications expert who has worked with the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy and the US Institute of Peace, is concerned. He warns that: “Hospitals in Lebanon were already at capacity or near capacity because of Covid” as well as “massive power cuts” that have afflicted the city. Beirut’s hospitals need help – and urgently.

Amid the chaos, Lebanon’s Prime Minister has promised that “this catastrophe will not pass without accountability…Those responsible will pay the price.” Yet there are doubts as to whether a government that has allowed such a catastrophe to take place will be able to arrest the full extent of the crisis which is now unfolding. Many see yesterday’s explosion as merely the latest expression of wider failures in a broken system that has institutionalised sectarianism, fuelled corruption, and failed ordinary people.

Dutch-Lebanese journalist and author, Kim Ghattas, who is also a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank, believes that radical change is urgent if Lebanon is to move beyond the malaise which is crippling the country.

Responding to warm words from Jan Kubis, the United Nations’ Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Ghattas tweeted: “We need more than sympathy from the world. We need urgent help for overburdened hospitals, humanitarian help for families who have lost everything and PRESSURE on an incompetent criminal political class to resign and face justice. And we need reforms! Now.”