Lebanon asks for help rebuilding post-explosion

Lebanon’s president calls for the international community’s support to rebuild the country’s main port and destroyed neighborhoods after last month’s catastrophic explosion that decimated the facility.

President Michel Aoun speaks in a prerecorded speech to the UN General Assembly’s virtual summit, telling world leaders that Lebanon is facing multiple crises that pose an unprecedented threat to the small country’s existence.

Most urgently, he says the country needs the international community’s support to rebuild its economy and its destroyed port. He suggests breaking up the damaged parts of the city into separate areas and so that countries that wish to help can each commit to rebuilding one.

The August 4 explosion was the result of nearly 3,000 tons of improperly stored and rotting ammonium nitrates igniting at the port. The blast killed nearly 200 people, injured 6,500, and left a quarter of a million with homes unfit to live in.

An investigation is underway, but no one has been held accountable so far. Aoun, in his speech, says Lebanon had requested assistance from certain countries, particularly for soil samples and satellite images, and was still waiting for their results.

— AP