Lebanon: queues in front of gas stations degenerate into armed clashes

Published on : 06/18/2021 – 6:02 PM

The Lebanese pound has continued to tumble for several months against the US dollar. Thursday, June 17, the national currency was exchanged at 14,800 pounds to the dollar.

Against this background currency depreciation At the national level, the price of gasoline at the pump, although still subsidized by the state, has increased several times in recent months. Thursday, June 17, the 20 liter can of unleaded 95 went to 43,500 pounds [24 euros] after a further increase of 1,700 pounds [0,94 euro] announced by the Lebanese government.

And while the Lebanese government has reduced its import of hydrocarbon products in recent months, many gas stations have closed across the country, and gasoline is sometimes rationed to just 10 liters per pump.

Consequence: queues, sometimes several kilometers long in front of stations that have remained open, have on several occasions degenerated into fights since the beginning of June, as evidenced by videos relayed on social networks.

_{Shots fired at a Total gas station, in the Qasqas district, in the suburbs of Beirut, on June 16, 2021.}

_{Employees beat a customer with gasoline pistols in Dora, Akkar Governorate. Video broadcast on June 15, 2021.}

Jalal Naanou is a freelance journalist in Beirut. He spends an average of three hours a day in queues for gasoline:

“People experience this situation as a humiliation”

The Central Bank of Lebanon has been dragging its feet to settle the import invoices of hydrocarbon products in recent months, which has prompted companies to require payment in advance before delivering. The crisis is also aggravated by certain young unemployed people, who buy gasoline to resell it on the black market much more expensive to the well-off. Consequence: the gasoline available at the pump has been considerably reduced.

To wait three hours a day in front of a gas station under the dodger, it is in any case unbearable, unjustifiable. Here, people experience this situation as a humiliation. Sometimes you even stand in line for several hours, and once you get to the pump, the employee tells you that there is no more gas and that you will have to come back the next day.

So it’s no surprise that people lose their nerves, and fights break out.

_{Queue in front of a gas station in Beirut. Video broadcast on June 17, 2021.}

Fights occur especially when a motorist does not respect the line and tries to pass in front of others.

At first, we were surprised when we saw videos of brawls and gunshots in front of gas stations. But now it’s become commonplace, a routine. Members of the Lebanese army and state security have been deployed in front of some stations for a few days, but they obviously cannot be everywhere. I think the municipalities should get involved and send the municipal police as reinforcements, which they still have not done.

منذ قليل في طريق الحديدة خلاف تطوّر إلى إطلاق نار على خلفيّة أفضليّة الدور في تعبئة البنزين ? https://t.co/jAx8TS0xmU pic.twitter.com/8pMJmyJRa0

– أرشيف لبنان Lebanon Archives (@booklebanon) June 11, 2021

_{Shots were fired – without it being possible to identify by whom – while a brawl took place in front of a gas station on June 11, 2021, in Tariq El Jdideh, a district of Beirut.}

_{A gunshot is fired, as tension reigns at a gas station in Beirut. Video broadcast on June 1, 2021.}

This shortage really plagues the daily life of the Lebanese. School transport companies told families: “If you want your children to go to school, drive them yourself, we have no fuel”. I also know teachers who can no longer go to work, while in Lebanon it is exam period.

Economy Minister Raymond Rajar said in April that the shortage was “mainly due” to fuel smuggling to Syria. An explanation that does not convince Jalal Naanou:

There is daily gasoline smuggling to Syria, it is true. The Lebanese army regularly announces seizures at the border with Syria. But we must not let the political class use this traffic, which exists everywhere else in the world, as an excuse to cover up their incompetence and their inability to get the country out of the crisis.

The shortages in Lebanon have affected several sectors. Many drugs, including infant milk in particular, are becoming increasingly scarce.

>> To read on the Observers: In Lebanon, anger against traders “accused of causing a shortage of basic products”

The economic crisis, which has continued to worsen for almost two years, has tipped over one in two Lebanese under the poverty line. Groups of demonstrators take to the streets regularly, blocking roads, to demand a renewal of the Lebanese political class, deemed “incompetent” and “corrupt”.