In Pictures
In Pictures: Lebanon on the edge as protests continue
Demonstrators blocked roadways across Lebanon for the fifth day in a row as anger simmered over the economic downturn.
Groups of protesters have been burning tyres daily to block roads since the Lebanese currency tumbled to a new low on Tuesday, enraging a population long horrified by the country’s financial meltdown.
On Saturday, a small group of protesters in front of the central bank in the capital, Beirut, demanded access to their deposits, before walking to the Parliament to express their frustration.
“The dollar is 10,500 [pounds] and everyone has four or five children and their parents. They [politicians] need to feed us,” cried one protester.
“They vaccinated themselves from corona but they opened the country so that people could die,” he added, referring to a group of politicians who inoculated themselves in Parliament last month without prior approval, a move that led the World Bank to consider suspending its financing of vaccines in Lebanon.
Another protester said he was frustrated that other Lebanese were still sitting at home.
“Where are the Lebanese people? The dollar is now 10,500 [pounds] and it will reach to 15,000 or 20,000. Why are we inside homes? We have to come out.”
Lebanon’s financial crisis, which erupted in 2019, has wiped out jobs, raised warnings of growing hunger and locked people out of their bank deposits.
