The German embassy in Beirut announced on Saturday (February 6, 2021) the end of the process of processing 52 containers containing highly dangerous chemicals that have been present in the port of Beirut for more than a decade, to be shipped to Germany.
Last November, Lebanon signed a contract with the German company “Combi Lift”, worth 3.6 million dollars, to dispose of “Hazardous flammable materials“ Six months ago, it was stored in the port of Beirut, which witnessed a terrible explosion, which killed more than two hundred people, injured more than 6,500 and caused serious damage to the country’s main port and several neighborhoods in the capital. .
The German Ambassador to Beirut, Andreas Kindle, said on Twitter that the first part of the mission had been “completed” after “Combi Lift handled 52 containers of highly dangerous chemicals, which had accumulated over decades and posed a threat to the people in Beirut. ” “Now it is ready to be shipped to Germany,” he added.
Lack of protection measures.
The containers had been under the supervision of the General Directorate of Customs since 2009, which had the responsibility of disposing. Its existence emerged almost a month after the August 4 explosion, which authorities attributed to the storage of large amounts of ammonium nitrate without protective measures.
According to a summary prepared by the General Directorate of Public Security, according to a summary obtained by AFP from the office of Acting Prime Minister Hassan Diab in November, the containers “contain dangerous acidic substances that are flammable and reactive with the passage of time.”
The head of the board of directors, the general director of the port, speaking on behalf of al-Qaisi, told France Press on November 19: “If the materials distributed in the heart of the port caught fire, Beirut would be destroyed.”
Investigations are ongoing
The agencies involved, be it the military or the port administration, do not have the capacity to destroy materials that require expertise and technologies that are not available locally.
The contract provides for the reloading of hazardous materials in new special containers that withstand high temperatures and their transport outside of Lebanon. The value of the contract is $ 3.6 million, of which the port management will pay two million, while the company earns 1.6 million, according to the offices of Diab and Al-Qaisi.
Authorities are investigating the Beirut port explosion, which revealed officials at various levels were aware of the dangers of storing ammonium nitrate without lifting a finger. However, the investigation has not yielded any results so far.
And 25 people were arrested, including those responsible for the administration, security and maintenance of the port. Have Politics entered the line of investigation and contributed to hinder it, especially after the investigating judge made accusations against political officials..
AH / GM (AFP)
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A cloud of death, ruins and thousands of victims … Shocking images of the Beirut explosion
Apocalypse movies come true in Beirut
Tuesday (August 4, 2020) was any ordinary summer day in Beirut’s history until a few minutes after 6 p.m. local time in the Lebanese capital, a disaster similar to scenes from end-of-the-century movies occurred. world: a terrible explosion. in “Pavilion No. 12” of the port of Beirut “Around 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate have been stored there for six years without security measures,” according to Prime Minister Hassan Diab.
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A cloud of death, ruins and thousands of victims … Shocking images of the Beirut explosion
Terrifying mushroom cloud
Although the explosions in Beirut are not unusual, what residents saw in the Beirut port explosion is something they had not seen before. After they saw a thick cloud of smoke, the explosion occurred that shook all of Lebanon to the island of Cyprus, 200 kilometers away, and a mushroom-shaped cloud appeared at the site of the explosion, which is associated in our minds with nuclear explosions, like the cloud that rises over Nagasaki after the launch of a nuclear bomb in August 1945.
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A cloud of death, ruins and thousands of victims … Shocking images of the Beirut explosion
Warnings since 2014
It is a “nightmare” of a summer night, which was warned of its occurrence years ago. Beirut Governor Judge Marwan Abboud revealed that a security report dating back to 2014 warned of the possibility of an explosion due to the storage of highly material explosives in a way that does not take into account public safety.
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A cloud of death, ruins and thousands of victims … Shocking images of the Beirut explosion
Countless victims
After the blast left the port area in ruins, rescuers, with the support of security forces, worked through the night searching for survivors or victims trapped under the rubble. At noon the following day, the Lebanese Red Cross reports that there are more than a hundred dead and four thousand injured, and that its teams continue to carry out search and rescue operations in the vicinity of the site. However, whatever is said about the number of victims, the primary information will remain, as the actual numbers take a long time to quantify.
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A cloud of death, ruins and thousands of victims … Shocking images of the Beirut explosion
Mass destruction and huge material losses
It is a catastrophic situation that Beirut has never witnessed in its history, according to Abboud. In addition to the irreparable human losses, there are great material losses since “about half of Beirut was destroyed or damaged.” The governor of the battered city affirmed that “there are between 250 and 300 thousand people who are left homeless, because their homes have become uninhabitable,” indicating that he estimates that the damages cost between three and five billion dollars, at the awaiting final reports from engineers and experts.
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A cloud of death, ruins and thousands of victims … Shocking images of the explosion in Beirut
Beirut hospitals are no longer capable
Lebanon is experiencing an unprecedented financial crisis, and the Corona pandemic has pushed hospitals to full capacity, with those injured in the blast overnight toured several hospitals that were unable to receive them. A doctor at the Hotel Dieu Hospital in Ashrafieh, east of Beirut, said the number of wounded at the hospital had reached 500, and asked not to bring any more wounded. In front of the Clemenceau hospital in western Beirut, dozens of wounded waited outside for treatment.
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A cloud of death, ruins and thousands of victims … Shocking images of the Beirut explosion
The world laments and offers help, but how?
After the explosion, the countries of the world began to offer condolences to Lebanon and rushed to provide aid, to the point that Israel, which is still officially at war with Lebanon, was among the first to offer aid. Countries like Kuwait and the Netherlands have already sent aid, and there is aid on its way to Beirut from countries like Qatar, Jordan, Germany, Tunisia, Egypt, and others, and it is especially concerned about medical teams, field hospitals, rescue teams, and recovery from victims, like the team that Germany decided to send.
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A cloud of death, ruins and thousands of victims … Shocking images of the Beirut explosion
“Social Media” shows its positive side
Parallel to the official authorities, campaigns to help Lebanon in its ordeal were quickly launched on social media. There are exchange brochures posted by bloggers and tweeters inside and outside Lebanon that include telephones for people offering to receive those who have lost their homes, and others asking for blood donations and searching for the missing. Prepared by: Salah Sharara
