Lebanese crisis is taking a grave undertone. At least two armed bank customers along with outraged clients who were furious about Lebanon’s financial crisis-related withdrawal restrictions on Tuesday stormed four commercial banks around the nation.
Image Source- MF (Statista)
Lebanese financial crisis
As inhabitants of Lebanon grew irate over the informal capital limitations banks implemented since an economic crisis started in 2019, cases of bank hold-ups spread around the country.
According to Depositors’ Outcry, a nonprofit advocating for irate depositors, a Lebanese man armed with a pistol and a grenade stormed the Chtaura branch of BLC Bank on Tuesday morning and demanded access to his $24,000 in funds.
The guy, named Ali al-Saheli, was in serious debt, and the organisation said in a statement that he also wanted to transmit money to his son, who was attending school in Ukraine.
The statement read, “He has been trying to sell his kidney.”
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The group said that security personnel later broke into the bank and detained Saheli before he could access any money.
Witnesses claim that on Tuesday, a group of individuals working at a state power plant in northern Lebanon broke into the Tripoli branch of the First National Bank.
According to their union representative Talal Hajer, who was standing outside the bank, they were upset over the time it took to access their salaries and the costs they were being charged for the procedure.
Image Source- The National
According to the Depositors’ Association, another advocacy group, a third event involved an armed depositor momentarily taking hostages at Byblos Bank in Tyre, a city in the southern part of the country.
According to the report, he was armed with a revolver and demanded access to his $44,000 in savings.
After discussions with the bank, he agreed to accept 350 million Lebanese pounds in cash, which, at Tuesday’s market rate, would be worth almost $9,000, and gave it to a relative before being arrested, according to the Depositors’ Association. Byblos Bank made no quick comments
According to Depositors’ Outcry, a fourth depositor staged a sit-in at IBL Bank in the Hazmieh neighborhood of Beirut, declaring that he would not leave unless he was given unrestricted access to his account. Whether he was armed was not immediately apparent.
The banks association announced a halt for nearly a week last month after a binge of seven hold-ups in a single week.
This week, banks have already been shaken by five occurrences. Zaher Khawaja, a depositor from Lebanon, and a few friends were successful on Monday in taking $11,750 out of a BLOM Bank account with more than $700,000 in the Haret Hreik location. He was not carrying a weapon, according to BLOM, and the event would be looked into.
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