Outraged protesters return to the streets of Lebanon’s capital, blocking roads with burning tires and garbage containers as the currency continues to plummet to all-time lows and the country’s financial crisis intensifies.
The protests resume — although in smaller numbers — following several days of relative calm as the Lebanese pound continued its slide, plunging to a new low of 15,000 to the US dollar on the black market.
“Where are the people? Come down, we are hungry, we are fed up!” yelled Ahmad Shuman, a protester frustrated at the small number of people taking part in demonstrations.
A Syrian boy who sells flowers on the street watches protesters burn tires to block a main road during a protest against the increase in prices of consumer goods and the crash of the local currency, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 16, 2021 (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
In another Beirut neighborhood, small groups of young men, some driving scooters, pelted shop windows with stones and asked them to close. It was not clear why they were pressuring them to close.
The currency has lost 90% of its value since October 2019, when anti-government protests erupted, including more than 25% in the past few weeks alone. Senior politicians, meanwhile, have refused to work together to form a new government that would implement the reforms needed to extract the nation from the crisis.
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From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
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