Lebanon voters hope to pull country back from brink
Lebanon is a country in crisis. The UN says about 80% of its people live in poverty. The capital, Beirut, still bears the scars of the devastating port explosion that killed more than 200 people in 2020. The mood is fragile, hurting, desperate.
(BBC) Lebanon is a country in crisis. The UN says about 80% of its people live in poverty. The capital, Beirut, still bears the scars of the devastating port explosion that killed more than 200 people in 2020. The mood is fragile, hurting, desperate.
On Sunday, the Lebanese people will go to the polls and pass verdict on the politicians that many blame for the state of the country. But can this election deliver the change they need?
Capt Maroun Jreich is scanning the sea through his binoculars, looking for shapes that break the surface. He's searching for bodies floating in the calm, glass-like water. For three weeks, he and his crew have tried to find people who died in the most desperate way.
They had set out from Tripoli in northern Lebanon, hoping for a new life. Instead, they perished in the cold waters, as the small boat they hoped would carry them to a better future sank under the waves.
In a large open square, surrounded by family and friends, Bilal al-Dandashi waits for news. He's hoping Captain Jreich and his crew will find his wife Monira, 12-year-old son Rayan and daughter Layth, aged just four.
Despite his hope, he knows they're almost certainly dead. Amid bright pops of colourful flowers and the sound of children playing, he recalls the careful plans he made. "My brother, family and friends clubbed together to buy the boat. We refurbished it and bought life jackets and medicine, food, water and diesel," he says.
"During the last days of Ramadan, we decided to set off. Then tragedy hit."
Bilal, like many others, had decided to take a desperate risk. For many Lebanese who don't have the money for plane tickets, or the right qualifications for a passport, escaping by sea under cover of darkness seems the only option.
Bilal wanted to help his family. But now, the choice he made haunts him.
"The rear sank first, because that's where the engines were. Then we saw white smoke as water entered them. I realised we were sinking. In a matter of three minutes, we were in the water. I thought, 'I'm going to die.'"
"I thought I could hear my daughter's or son's voice. God saved two of my children, but my wife has gone with the other two. I spent four nights down at the beach. I can't sleep anymore. My surviving children don't want to go home: every time they go, they remember."
Bilal knows who he holds responsible for the loss of his family. "As Lebanese people, from all religions, we are living among monsters. If there really was humanity and mercy, we wouldn't have ended up like this.
"I blame the politicians. They didn't just drown my children, they drowned all of us, all of the Lebanese people."