One person died and 2 people injured in a shooting that broke out in the al-Khnaq neighborhood in Tripoli in northern Lebanon during a distribution of food rations, leading to the intervention of the Lebanese Army and the Internal Security Forces.
The latter opened an investigation to determine the circumstances of the incident, said a dispatch from the National Information Agency.
This information comes as Lebanon is hit by a serious economic crisis with 65% of its population currently living below the poverty line and an unemployment rate that would perhaps exceed 50% in the absence of official statistics. The deterioration of the Lebanese pound against the dollar has led to a sharp increase in prices to the tune of more than 114% in 2021, while the Bank of Lebanon’s subsidy program for the purchase of basic necessities should soon end. for lack of available monetary reserves. The subsidy program for the purchase of basic necessities should end at the end of June, said the governor of the Bank of Lebanon, Riad Salamé, for lack of monetary reserves available to continue it, inducing additional pressure on the local currency. .
The authorities of the outgoing government had however tried to set up a social safety net for the most vulnerable people. Despite the vote by parliament of a plan for funding to exceed $ 1.2 trillion, it is still not yet fully active due to problems to specifically determine the beneficiaries most in need, due to the interaction of political parties to benefit their members.