Dozens gathered outside the Lebanese embassy in D.C. Wednesday evening in a show of support for Beirut a day after the city in Lebanon was rocked by a massive explosion.
Ziad Achkar, who is from Lebanon and organized the gathering sparked by a moving Twitter thread gone viral, told WTOP the tragedy is a huge blow to a country already in severe economic crisis.
“People deserve better,” he said. “We can build our economy, what we need is the basic infrastructure, basic institutions, to function so that we can actually have a decent way of living.”
Achkar said Lebanon relies heavily on imports, so the port’s destruction is a crippling blow. He added it’s hard to hear the blast, which appeared to have been caused by an accidental fire that ignited a stockpile of ammonium nitrate at the port, was the result of materials sitting there for years. He questioned the negligence and competence of those responsible for an incident that killed over 100 people and injured thousands.
Losses from the explosion are estimated to be between $10 billion to $15 billion, Beirut Gov. Marwan Abboud told the Saudi-owned TV station Al-Hadath on Wednesday, adding that nearly 300,000 people are homeless.
“It’s going to cost billions of dollars Lebanon does not have, unfortunately,” he said.
Even in the face of disaster, Achkar said he’s trying to be positive. But he said the country needs assistance from international institutions, and gave advice to individuals who want to help.
“Cash is better than products,” he said. “If you can give $5, $10, $20 to support the Lebanese Red Cross or any of these NGOs, that’s definitely the way to go … [NGOs are] the ones that will be helping the people directly.”
Here are photos and tweets from the vigil Wednesday.
WTOP’s Alejandro Alvarez and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
