Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s Lebanese government is about to step down, Lebanese media reported. Otherwise, the Diab government would not survive a vote in parliament.

 

On Monday, the third minister left Diab’s cabinet after the colossal explosion that devastated an essential part of the capital Beirut last Tuesday.

More than 200 people were killed, according to the governor of Beirut. An estimated 6,000 people have been injured, and hundreds of thousands have been left homeless.

Justice Minister Marie Claude Najm has resigned on Monday. She follows the example of the Ministers of Information (Manal Abdel Samad) and of the Environment (Damianos Kattar). But according to media reports, the anger in Lebanon about the explosion is so high that the rest of the cabinet must also quickly leave the field.

The cause of the two explosions is unknown, but the explosive ammonium nitrate that caused the enormous damage had been in port for years in a shed that was unsuitable for it.

Customs and port authorities had often urged to remove the life-threatening stuff. It was stored there because the judicial authorities had confiscated it.

Even before the explosion, the country was already in a deep economic and political crisis that led to many protests. Protesters are now also turning against the government because they hold it responsible for the disaster as negligent and corrupt.