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Breaking the Barriers: One Year of Demonstrations in Lebanon

Pays
Liban
+ 1
Sources
ACLED
Date de publication
Origine
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Nearly one year has passed since a large protest movement calling for political renewal began to sweep across Lebanon. The movement, popularly dubbed thawra (revolution), has exposed the negligence and ineptitude of the Lebanese ruling class. Yet, it has failed to produce the radical political overhaul protesters have been demanding. Today, Lebanon, plagued by economic hardship, political gridlock, and the consequences of the most devastating explosion in the country’s history, faces a heightened risk of political instability and unrest.

Last January, ACLED included Lebanon among the 10 conflicts and crisis situations to worry about in 2020. ACLED data shows that demonstrations grew violent over the first half of 2020, revealing how the political tensions that surfaced in the fall of 2019 did not decline in the new year. Twelve months on from the beginning of the movement in October 2019, this report provides an overview of one year of popular mobilization in Lebanon, exploring its onset and stasis. It shows that, throughout 2020, political, security, and economic crises have exacerbated Lebanon’s systemic instability, and could plunge the country further into chaos should they remain unaddressed.

Over the past year, ACLED has collaborated with Lebanon Support to supplement the real-time data collection of political violence and demonstration events in Lebanon. The result of this partnership is an updated dataset of over 6,700 events recorded between January 2016 and October 2020, providing comprehensive coverage of political disorder across the country (see Figure 1). Approximately 70% of these events — amounting to over 4,700 — involve peaceful protesters. Around 1,000 events — corresponding to the 15% of the total — involve demonstrators engaging in violent rioting.