BEIRUT – Schools, universities and several businesses were closed Thursday in Lebanon, as a general strike by unions and public transport crippled a country whose economy is already dying.
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Protesters have blocked the country’s main highways and several roads inside cities to denounce a dramatic rise in the cost of fuel since the government abolished subsidies. Truck and taxi drivers blocked the roads with their vehicles. In Beirut, the capital, several roads were paralyzed by garbage containers and vehicles.
The “Rabies Day” began at 5:00 am local time and was scheduled to last 12 hours, but the movement was showing signs of running out of steam in the early afternoon. There were only a handful of protesters.
The strike comes as the Lebanese currency continues to collapse against the US dollar. About 80% of Lebanese live in poverty, since the Lebanese pound has lost more than 90% of its value over the past two years. A full tank of gas now costs more than the minimum monthly wage.
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The ruling class, which is directly responsible for Lebanon’s economic collapse, refuses to change and has done little to get the country out of trouble, after decades of corruption and incompetent management.
“The obvious indifference of the Lebanese leaders to the suffering of the people in the context of one of the worst economic crises of modern times is practically criminal,” said Aya Majzoub, of the New York human rights group. person Human Rights Watch.
In its global report for the year 2022 released on Thursday, HRW underlines that “the corrupt and incompetent Lebanese leaders have deliberately plunged the country into one of the worst economic crises of the modern era, showing indifference to the rights of the people “.
Ms. Majzoub asked the international community to use “all the tools at its disposal to put pressure on the Lebanese leaders to put in place the reforms necessary to get Lebanon out of this crisis”.
The Associated Press