Lebanese protesters confronted army troops for a second day Tuesday as anger over a spiralling economic crisis re-energised a months-old anti-government movement in defiance of a coronavirus lockdown. Scuffles resumed in second city Tripoli in northern Lebanon as protesters hurled rocks at security forces who fired a volley of tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the demonstrators.
The violence came after a protester died on Tuesday from a bullet wound he had sustained during overnight confrontations between troops and hundreds of demonstrators in Tripoli.
Following the funeral of 26-year-old Fawaz al-Samman in the city's central Al-Nour Square, demonstrators went on the rampage, torching and vandalising banks and military vehicles.
Sixty people were injured, including some 40 soldiers, during the overnight exchange which saw protesters throw stones at troops who fired live rounds into the air to try to disperse the angry crowds under clouds of tear gas.
Tuesday's confrontations were the latest in a string of anti-government protests and social unrest fuelled by unprecedented inflation and a free-falling Lebanese pound that reached record lows against the dollar this week.
Angered by the financial collapse, demonstrators have rallied across Lebanon, blocking roads and attacking banks, re-energising a protest movement launched in October against a political class the activists deem inept and corrupt. "I came down to raise my voice against hunger, poverty and rising prices," Khaled, 41, told AFP, saying he had lost his job selling motorcycle parts and could no longer support his three children.
Lebanon is mired in its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, now compounded by a nationwide lockdown to stem the spread of the coronavirus which has killed 24 people and infected almost 700 others.
The Lebanese pound has lost more than half of its value on the black market, where it traded at a record low of around 4,000 pounds to the dollar this week. Economy Minister Raoul Nehme on Tuesday said that prices have risen by 55 per cent, while the government estimates that 45 per cent of the population now lives below the poverty line. This has unleashed a public outcry against a government that has yet to deliver a long awaited rescue plan to shore up the country's finances more than three months since it was nominated to address the crisis.
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