Five years after the explosions in Beirut: where is Lebanon?

At 6:07 p.m., 5 years ago, one of the worst non -nuclear explosions in history devastates the capital of Lebanon. The impressive images go around the world and the human record testifies to the horrors experienced by the inhabitants of Beirut that day: 235 people lose their lives and more than 6,500 others are injured.

Lamia Charlebois, a Lebanese expatriate who still has family in the country of Cedar, returns to this day horriblewhile she was in Montreal and tried to make sure her family was alive.

All the Lebanese of the diaspora and those in Lebanon remember exactly this second, which they did and the feeling that they hadrelate-t-elle.

First, a first explosion was heard in the early evening, followed by another very powerful who caused a gigantic mushroom in the sky.

There were lives that were changed in less than 15 seconds, changed by violence that they did not choosetestifies Ms. Charlebois, public relations consultant and responsible for a group on Facebook of 13,000 Lebanese in Montreal.

The detonation led to a tremor, breaking windows and buildings until kilometers from the implosion point. The breath was felt to the island of Cyprus about 200 km from Beirut.

Results : whole residential neighborhoods have been destroyed And 300,000 city dwellers met on the street, then thousands of infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, collapsed, recalls the professor in international relations at Saint-Joseph de Beirut University as well as to Sciences Po Paris, Karim Bitar.

The number of victims does not allow us to assess the trauma that the Lebanese has undergone in its right measure have undergonehe adds.

I have no words or adjectives up to what it is. What is terrible today is that it is an open -air tomb and, that in addition, there was no lawsuit. [On est] in total impunity.

Several actors involved

The explosion was caused by a fire in a warehouse located at the port of the vile, where 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate were stored, a white odor salt which is mainly used as fertilizer for agricultural use. However, it can also be used in the manufacture of explosives.

Despite repeated warnings to the authorities regarding the dangerousness of this explosive material, he had been stored there without precautions since 2013.

Why is there no accused manager on this issue? On one side there is the extent of the tragedy, the fact that several officials can be jointly questionedsays Bitar.

In 2013, a Moldovan ship, the Rhosus, left Georgia and had to go to Mozambique, according to theONG Human Rights Watch (HRW). However, due to lack of funds, the boat accosted in Beirut to take other cargoes in order to finance its crossing.

A year later, in 2014, the Lebanese authorities intervened to seize the ship and store the dangerous cargo. The officials of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport described in an inaccurate manner the risks of cargo in their requests to the justice to unload the goodsreports HRW.

This same ministry also has Siggingly stored ammonium nitrate in the port of Beirut with flammable or explosive materials for almost six yearsdespite the alarming relationships pointing to the danger of storage of this material.

The explosion then occurred in the Hangar 12 of the port, which seems, was secured by Hezbollah, explains Sami Aoun, professor emeritus at the applied politics school of the University of Sherbrooke.

As for the Lebanese army, it did not take any apparent measure to secure The stock, according to the report.

For its part, the general security is accused by HRW To have delayed reporting the danger to senior officials and having provided incomplete information on the risks posed by the nitrate stock that she inspected before the explosion.

What makes the singularity of this affair is that it implies a large number of groups which are not necessarily all of the same political camp. Several governments followed one another, between the time when the boat arrived and the era of the explosion. There has been negligence at all levelssupports Karim Bitar.

A real judicial coup

In response to the disaster, the Lebanese Prime Minister at the time, Hassan Diab, promises to judge the officials, during a speech on television.

The entire Lebanon is devastated. But I promise you that the managers will pay the very high price. […] We are experiencing a real disaster.

The latter resigned from his post a few days after the disaster.

Five years later, there is still no one who was tried responsible for this case, which is unacceptable and revolting For Lamia Charlebois.

This case involves a large part of the Lebanese political class, which has been very reluctant to let justice do its job. So, for several years, the judge was the victim of pressure. There was a real judicial coupaccording to Karim Bitar.

A first judge, Fadi Sawan, had been mandated by the government in 2020 to shed light on events. He had to give up his mission under pressure from politicians, after charging ex-Prime Minister Hassan Diab, as well as three ex-ministers.

Then, Tarek Bitar, an independent judge, had taken over the torch. He had in turn been forced to stop his investigation by high political leaders. But to the general surprise, Mr. Bitar had decided to relaunch his work in 2023 and to instill politicians, more than a year after the suspension of these activities.

A few days later, the Lebanese prosecutor had announced that he was pursuing Mr. Bitar for insubordination, a first in the history of Lebanon. These twists and turns had provoked collective anger among the population, which demands an independent international investigation, which the Lebanese authorities have continually refused.

There has been a certain un confused solidarity at the political class to perhaps hinder or drop this investigation. In addition, between judges in the judicial system, there are also cleavages.

It is really on a denominational level that there are blockageshe adds.

Partisan policy is closely linked to religious confession, which offers managers the possibility of using the map of communitarianism to escape justice and at Each time we challenge someone, we say, ‘ah no, it is because it is Shiite that it is arrested?’ ‘Or’ no, no, it is because it is Sunni ” and thisillustrates Mr. Aoun.

2025: Wind of change?

On January 9, 2025, Lebanon has elected a president for the first time in more than two years. Joseph Aoun, the former commander -in -chief of the army and of Christian confession Maronite, managed to rally deputies of various confessions for his candidacy.

Five days later, he appointed Nawaf Salam, a Sunni Muslim, as Prime Minister of the Cedar country. He was president of the International Court of Justice (Bread) in The Hague, just before obtaining this mandate.

Today begins a new era in the history of Lebanonhad declared Mr. Aoun after taking oath to the Parliament, to the applause of the deputies. He also promised the families of the victims of Discover the whole truth and to ask those who caused this disaster for accounts.

These elections generated the resumption of investigations by Judge Tarek Bitar in 2025. He notably succeeded in summoning officials and questioning personalities related to this case. Others, however, refused to collaborate, making the investigation all the more complex for the judge.

We have a political will on the part of the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, but we do not know if this will will be concretized by the end of the year by a report signed by Judge Bitarexplains Sami Aoun.

For the first time in five years, we have the feeling that the investigation is no longer in a standstill, that it was relaunched. There is no guarantee, but it is already better than what we had experienced before.

For his part, Mr. Aoun, who is also director of the Observatory on the Middle East and North Africa of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair, remains cautious for the rest. Yes, there is a certain hope, but there are still blockages.