Faced with a severe man-made economic crisis since 2019, a story of utter desperation emerged from the West Asian country of Lebanon when a video went viral on social media, showing a man entering a bank Gaya and several people were taken hostage, seeking their own use. ‘Trapped money’. According to the video, the incident took place in Beirut. Beirut police tried to pacify the man, who eventually gave up after a seven-hour-long stand-off.
According to a report on Washington PostThe man was identified as 42-year-old food-delivery driver Bassam al-Sheikh Hussain. Being hailed as a ‘hero’ by the locals, hussain He later surrendered and was arrested by the police.
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Hussain was surrendered after being assured that his $35,000 money would be made available to him. An Al Jazeera report quoted Hussein’s wife, Mariam Chehadi, who was standing outside the bank, as saying that her husband “did what he had to do”. The report further states that Hussain needs money for his father’s surgery.
Hussain a. had entered the bank armed with gun and petrol canister And threatening to set himself on fire unless he was allowed to withdraw his money, he also fired three warning shots, the report quoted local police in Beirut as saying.
Al Jazeera later spoke to the lawyer for the man who said Hussein had not received any money. Local media reported that he had about $200,000 stuck in the bank.
The incident highlights the plight of the local citizens of Lebanon, who do not have access to money deposited in banks. This has been happening since the economic crisis that started in 2019.
According to a United Nations report published in May 2022, the actions of Lebanese political and financial leaders are responsible for forcing much of the country’s population into poverty, in violation of international human rights law. The United Nations has blamed decades of low investment in the public health system and the “shameful” partial removal of subsidies on essential medicines by the government, a serious lack of strong social protection mechanisms.
Lebanon’s man-made economic crisis began in 2019, and today the country stands as “a failed state”, the UN expert said. He cited current estimates that put four out of every five people in poverty.
Lebanon’s cash-strapped government is struggling to afford imports of fuel to feed its power plants, leaving most parts of the country out of power for up to 22 hours a day. The World Bank said last year that Lebanon’s economic collapse was likely to be among the world’s worst financial crises since the mid-19th century.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has also warned Lebanon during a regular trilateral meeting that they should not take the relative stability along their borders lightly, citing airstrikes between Israel and Gaza.
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