Lebanese citizens, who were evacuated from Sudan, walk outside Beirut airport, Lebanon April 25, 2023. (Credit: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)
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Several dozen Lebanese, Palestinian and Syrian nationals fleeing the conflict in Sudan arrived in Beirut in two batches between yesterday and today, the state-run National News Agency reported. Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said that the ministry is “ready to receive calls from those remaining there.” Bou Habib said around 70 people were evacuated between Sunday and yesterday, adding that the UAE and Saudi Arabia aided in the evacuation. The minister said the evacuation was facilitated by the fact that “a large number of the Lebanese community in Sudan were in Lebanon during the [Easter and Eid al-Fitr] holidays.” Armed clashes between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have killed hundreds of people since April 15 and forced thousands to flee.
Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi banned Syrian refugees in Lebanon from protesting ahead of two opposing protests scheduled for today. Mawlawi said he feared clashes between protesters as calls for a sit-in at the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) headquarters in Beirut, condemning the agency’s silence in the face of a recent increase in deportations, was met by a call for a counterprotest by an anti-Syrian refugee group. The same day, Kataeb leader Sami Gemayel called on international organizations to stop providing aid to Syrian refugees in Lebanon, furthering anti-refugee rhetoric amid increased deportation rates. On Monday, Amnesty International called on Lebanese authorities to stop “unlawful deportations,” warning that refugees face a “risk of torture or persecution at the hands of the Syrian government upon return.” That same day, the municipality of Feitroun in Mount Lebanon announced restrictions targeting Syrian refugees, which include a curfew, a ban on social gatherings and limits to the fields refugees can work in. Hundreds of people have been arrested since the start of April and dozens have been deported amid increased crackdowns on Syrian refugee communities in Lebanon.
Raja Salameh did not attend his scheduled hearing before European judges investigating corruption allegedly committed by his brother, Banque du Liban (BDL) governor Riad Salameh. A lawyer representing Raja Salameh said his absence was due to health reasons, while a source at the Beirut Justice Palace told L’Orient Today that Raja was prescribed a week of rest after a brief hospitalization on Monday. The delegation of French, German and Luxembourgian judges arrived in Beirut Monday for a third visit, furthering their probe into the acquisition of European real estate assets and bank deposits through allegedly embezzled commissions from the sale of BDL assets — thought to have been siphoned through a firm listing Raja Salameh as its beneficiary. The European judges also scheduled hearings with Riad Salameh’s former assistant, Marianne Hoayek, for later this week and with BDL and banking sector officials the week after. Raja Salameh was arrested last May for “complicity with illicit enrichment” following a court hearing.
Annual inflation remained in the triple digits as prices in March rose by a third of their February levels, according to figures released yesterday by the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS). The CAS figures showed inflation increasing by 264 percent between March 2022 and March 2023. Prices in March were 33 percent higher than in February, driven by a 52 percent increase in telecoms rates, a 49 percent increase in transportation costs and a 40 percent increase to restaurant and hotel prices. Inflation was most strongly felt in the North Lebanon governorate, where prices increased by 39 percent, while the most moderate increase occurred in Nabatieh, where prices rose by 27 percent. The caretaker cabinet last week approved a series of measures increasing the compensation and transportation allowances of public and private sector employees.
A municipality engineer will conduct an inspection of Smart High School, in Burj al-Barajneh in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where a roof collapsed on Monday, the school’s principal said. The roof of Smart High School collapsed during the Eid al-Fitr holiday when students were not inside the facility. No one was injured. The Education Ministry instructed the school to stop receiving “students, teachers and school workers until the completion of the necessary restoration,” the principal said. Last November, a ceiling collapse in a Tripoli public school killed 16-year-old Maguy Mahmoud, sparking outrage from the area’s residents who called on authorities to survey the structural soundness of properties in the area. More than 15,000 buildings across Lebanon, excluding those in the capital, are at risk of collapse due to lack of maintenance or cut corners during construction, Lebanese Association of Property Owners chairwoman Andera Zouheiry claimed last June.
Security forces scuffled with protesters decrying the allegedly selective enforcement of a crackdown on unlicensed construction in Burj al-Sehamali in Sour. Videos sent by L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the area showed security forces members beating a protestor and shooting in the air to diffuse the protest. The head of the Burj al-Shemali municipality said residents have undertaken construction projects despite a moratorium by the Interior Ministry on new construction licenses for the past two years. A similar dispute erupted in the village of Baiseriyeh, South Lebanon after an attempted Internal Security Forces intervention on illegal construction on publicly owned land — which the area’s residents claimed was also being done selectively.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “Nazem Ahmad, the art collector suspected of financing Hezbollah”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz