Can Lebanon deliver justice for the port explosion?
On Tuesday, August 3 at 19:30 GMT:
Families of those killed and injured in an explosion that laid parts of Lebanon’s capital to waste are still looking for answers.
August 4 marks one year since a huge blast at Beirut’s port devastated the city. More than 200 people were killed and thousands injured when ammonium nitrate stored at a warehouse ignited during a fire.
Al Jazeera correspondent Zeina Khodr witnessed the blast first-hand and has in recent months followed families’ efforts to get justice for their loved ones. In a new film for The Full Report series – ‘Beirut’s Search For Answers’ – she examines the impact of Lebanon’s worst peacetime disaster and the key questions that remain unanswered.
With parts of Beirut still lying derelict a year after the explosion and with many families still struggling to find places to live, Lebanon faces a host of challenges. A currency crisis has seen the value of the Lebanese pound drop by more than 90 percent since 2019, immiserating millions of people. Food inflation has left families struggling to feed themselves. There are shortages of medicines and fuel needed to power water supply systems and generators. And Lebanon’s political parties remain at odds over the makeup of a government, with recently approved prime minister-designate Najib Mikati now facing the unenviable task of forming a cabinet acceptable to all sides.
In this episode of The Stream we’ll look at efforts to expose the truth about Lebanon’s worst peacetime disaster as the country’s problems mount.
In this episode of The Stream, we are joined by:
Zeina Khodr @ZeinakhodrAljaz
Senior Correspondent, Al Jazeera English
Antonia Mulvey, @AntoniaMulvey
Founder and Executive Director, Legal Action Worldwide (LAW)
legalactionworldwide.org
Mireille Khoury
Survivor and mother of Elias Khoury
facebook.com/friendsofeliaskhoury