Bank raids return as Lebanese turmoil continues

Two attempted bank holdups and a sit-in protest on Wednesday highlighted the growing desperation of Lebanese people grappling with the country’s worsening economic crisis. Bank raids by depositors demanding their money have been relatively infrequent during the past two months, but a string of incidents in recent days has again raised fears of growing unrest. In the third action against a bank in a single day, Amina Mohammad broke into a branch of the Intercontinental Bank of Lebanon in Tripoli demanding access to her savings to pay for an operation for her mother. The bank was forced to close its doors while staff negotiated with Mohammad and her mother. Earlier, a former soldier, Rida Rida, stormed into a branch of Bank Audi in Tyre, southern Lebanon, demanding his $15,000 deposit to pay for cancer treatment for his mother. Patrols from army intelligence and the security were sent to the bank while Rida outlined his demands to the bank’s manager. In the first incident of the day, Anis Tannous staged a sit-in outside the Societe Generale de Banque au Liban branch in Amioun, northern Lebanon, stopping people from entering or leaving the bank. Tannous demanded the bank transfer his son’s university tuition fee to the US.

Two days ago, another depositor, Hussein Ramadan, and his mother stormed into the Al-Baraka Bank in Hamra, Beirut, in a bid to reclaim $132,000 in savings. After hours of negotiations, the bank agreed to pay the pair $15,000.

The dismissal of employees has taken a tragic turn, too, with one man attempting to commit suicide using a military weapon in front of his former workplace in Jnah in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Security forces arrived immediately and detained the man.

Lebanon is in the grip of what the World Bank believes could rank among the top three financial crises in modern history.