People protested in the city of Nabatieh in front of the Grand Serail building in the city center, against the deteriorating economic and living conditions. Some of the signs read: You are a system of corruption against the people; The homeland will remain and you will disappear; You stole our children's bread; All of you means all of you. (Credit: Muntasser Abdallah)
BEIRUT — Hundreds protested on Thursday in several areas of Lebanon against the deteriorating living conditions as the country suffers from an unprecedented economic crisis.
Here’s what we know:
• The protest in Riad al-Solh, which had the most people out of the country-wide protests, was joined by Forces of Change MPs Paula Yacoubian and Yassin Yassin.
• “They approved a law to increase the telecommunications’ prices before the elections but implemented it after on purpose,” one protestor said.
• New telecommunications prices started this month, adding yet another expensive bill to a population already suffering from Lebanon’s economic collapse and compounded crises, as the country's sectors are crumbling.
• According to our correspondents in South and North Lebanon, protests also took place in Akkar, Jal al-Dib, Nabatieh and Saida. According to our correspondent in North Lebanon, the protest in Akkar took place in front of the Serail in Halba and included slogans against the prices and scarcity of bread, electricity shortages, collapsing healthcare system, hiked telecommunications prices, high prices of food products, and the rights of the depositors. Banks imposed de-facto capital controls on most people’s deposits since Oct. 2019 as the economic crisis that Lebanon is suffering from started to shape.
Activists in Akkar carried out a sit-in in front of the Halba Serail, in protest against the collapsing situation the country has reached. (Credit: Michel Hallak)
Additional reporting by Michel Hallak and Muntasser Abdallah.