BEIRUT —Two separate brawls over scarce fuel in northern Lebanon have left three
people dead, state media and security sources said, as shortages spark a wave
of confrontations at gas stations.
اضافة اعلان
Lebanon, grappling with an
economic crisis branded by the World Bank as one
of the planet's worst since the mid-19th century, has been gripped by a fuel
crisis since the start of summer.
Nearly 80 percent of the country's population now live in poverty, the UN
Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said last week, a
proportion far higher than last year's figure of 50 percent or so.
Fuel importers, who blame the fuel crisis on a delay by the dollar-starved
central bank in opening credit lines to fund imports, have severely rationed
supply, even after the government agreed to raised petrol and diesel prices by
more than a third in June.
This has generated hours-long queues at pumping stations, where shouting
matches, fist fights and even live fire have often required security forces to
intervene.
On Monday, a man was shot at a gas station in the northern Lebanon village
of Bakhoun, following a fight that broke out when a motorist tried to cut a
long queue, a security source told AFP.
The man later died of his wounds in hospital.
The killer handed himself over to the army, the official National News
Agency reported.
A separate fight "related to the sale and purchase of fuel" in the
northern city of Tripoli on Friday left another two people dead, NNA said.
A security source told AFP that the killing came days after an initial fight
broke out between motorists at a gas station over fuel purchases.
In retaliation, two young men involved in that fight were targeted by live
fire and a hand grenade early Friday morning, killing them.
Their families held funerals in Tripoli on Friday.
Shortages have given rise to a vibrant black market, where fuel is sometimes
sold at double the price set by the state.
Lebanese officials blame the fuel crisis on smuggling to Syria and
stockpiling by distributors seeking to sell at higher prices.
Beside a raft of shortages, Lebanon is also grappling with soaring poverty
and a spiraling devaluation of the Lebanese pound, which has lost more than 90
percent of its black market value.
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