Protesters cut a road on Wednesday in Beddawi in North Lebanon. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Calm returned to the streets of Tripoli Wednesday evening after gunfire resounded in various areas of the northern city earlier in the day as armed residents expressed their anger at the worsening economic situation in Lebanon.
Rounds were fired Wednesday in assorted neighborhoods of the city, including in Bab al-Tabbaneh, Al-Tal, Nejmeh Square, Qubbah and Jabal al-Beddawi, a source in Tripoli told our sister publication L’Orient Le Jour.
Tripoli’s Mayor Riyad Yamak confirmed that the army had taken control of the situation, saying that calm has mostly returned to the city’s streets.
Residents of Lebanon’s second-largest city, one of the most impoverished areas of the country, are angry over the lira’s rapid devaluation, soaring food prices, severe electricity cuts and fuel shortages in the country.
“Electricity generators have been turned off for four days in Tripoli, and the salaries of workers in Tripoli are between LL500,000 and LL600,00,” a Bab al-Tabbaneh resident told L’Orient Le Jour. At the current parallel market rate – around LL17,500 to the US dollar – this amounts to between $28 and $34.
L’Orient-Le Jour’s source said the gunfire was triggered when the army attempted to raid a house in Bab al-Tabbaneh in search of a wanted convict. Residents gathered in the area to prevent the army from carrying out the operation, the source explained.
During the afternoon’s unrest, protesters stormed Tripoli’s Qadisha Electricity Company, which is majority owned by state power provider Électricité du Liban, and attempted to force employees to turn the power supply on to several areas of the city. Local media outlets reported that the army intervened and removed protesters from the premises.