DOZENS INJURED IN LOCKDOWN PROTESTS IN LEBANON’S TRIPOLI

Wed 27 January 2021:

Protesters clashed with police in Lebanon’s capital Tripoli on Tuesday amid a national coronavirus lockdown leading to the at least 45 people being injured. Demonstrators angered by a lockdown that has worsened their economic woes, the Lebanese Red Cross says.

At least nine of the injured were treated in hospital following rolling scuffles in the city of Tripoli, the Red Cross said on Wednesday.

In the second protest in as many days, protesters pelted government offices with stones and blocked a main square.

The army was deployed to contain the rioters, who torched a vehicle parked in the area, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

At least 30 people were injured in similar clashes in Tripoli on Monday night as frustration with tight coronavirus restrictions boiled over.

Tripoli was already one of Lebanon’s poorest areas even before the pandemic piled on new misery to a chronic economic crisis.

Many of its residents have been left without an income since Lebanon imposed a full lockdown earlier this month in a bid to stem a surge in COVID-19 cases and prevent its hospitals being overwhelmed.

Last week, authorities extended the lockdown by two weeks, angering day labourers and other vulnerable groups.

The country has recorded more than 285,000 coronavirus cases and more than 2,470 deaths since the pandemic outbreak last year. On Tuesday, it hit a new daily record for COVID-19 fatalities, registering 73 deaths.