Lebanese authorities arrested eight people after a fire ripped through a refugee camp in the country’s north on Saturday evening, displacing hundreds in a dispute that appeared to pit Syrian refugees against their hosts.
The fire broke out started in the informal camp in the town of Miniyeh after an argument between Syrian labourers and a local farm owner.
Camp residents told The National that a Syrian man in the camp demanded unpaid wages from his local employer.
Angered, the farm owner rallied armed members of his extended family, who barged into the camp firing weapons in the air.
“I didn’t know where it was coming from,” said Sabiq Helew, 36, who fled Syria’s Hasakah province in 2013.
Mr Helew said youths from the family then set fire to a tent in the centre of the camp, which houses about 80 Syrian families, most of whom have fled the civil war.
The fire spread, destroying every shelter and leaving hundreds of displaced people homeless once more.
With flames lighting up the coastal town and shots ringing in the air, Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces were sent to restore order.
On Sunday, as children played in the ashy remains of the camp, dozens of soldiers stood watch.
Lebanon’s army said it arrested two Lebanese and six Syrians in connection with the blaze.
Mr Helew said he helped his four children over a wall surrounding the camp to escape the flames and gunshots.
“I pushed my wife and children over the wall, then I climbed over the wall," he said.
"We hid in the trees behind until 2am. I was afraid to come out. I knew that if one tent burns, all the tents will burn."
Yet far from being an isolated dispute Mohanad Hage Ali, a research fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Centre, said it was symptomatic of the Lebanese state’s withering amid a punishing financial crisis.
"In Lebanon we have this general discussion of local security. As the state collapses – and we are seeing cracks though not the full collapse, there will be attempts to provide security at a local level – through local militias, Zaims, or family-based groups," he told The National.
“The security of the country was subsidised by the inflated public sector – there was a low crime rate across the country because of that. Now, the Lebanese policeman and the Lebanese soldier are making much less, so the willingness to sacrifice on behalf of the state is falling.
“These incidents will be responded to in a collective fashion – it’s a primitive way of responding. It’s a dog-eat-dog situation. Increasingly it’s becoming as such, with the Syrians being the soft belly of Lebanon – they are unarmed, with no political representation and literally no one defending them, it makes them much more vulnerable.”
As the tents of what was once a refugee smouldered in the winter sun on Sunday, Syrians and Lebanese were desperate to stress that the actions were by only a small minority, and not a symptom of worsening relations between the two communities.
Lebanon hosts more than 1.5 million refugees but has been beset by its own problems in recent months, with the surging coronavirus tallies and a deepening financial crisis.
Yahya Bikai, 40, a Lebanese businessman who owns a building next to the camp, said he hoped the area could be rebuilt to give shelter to Syrians who had lost their tents.
"It's finished. It was a personal issue about money. It's nothing to do with Lebanese versus Syrians," Mr Bikai told The National.
“They are my neighbours. They’re more than brothers to me. If they want to live in my house, I don’t have a problem with that.”
Indeed, several witnesses told The National that as the fire began to spread, it was locals as well as fellow Syrians who rushed to the aid of those in the camp, bringing water and sand to fight the flames.
Others in Miniyeh, and the nearby city of Tripoli, opened their doors to the displaced.
But for all of the goodwill of most Lebanese, an exhausted Mr Helew said he was putting his faith elsewhere.
“The Lebanese have been very good to us but the UN needs to rebuild this camp. We can rely only on them. Them, and God.”
Pieces of Her
Stars: Toni Collette, Bella Heathcote, David Wenham, Omari Hardwick
Director: Minkie Spiro
Rating:2/5
The five pillars of Islam
House-hunting
Top 10 locations for inquiries from US house hunters, according to Rightmove
- Edinburgh, Scotland
- Westminster, London
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Barcelona v Liverpool, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE).
Second leg
Liverpool v Barcelona, Tuesday, May 7, 11pm
Games on BeIN Sports
Know your cyber adversaries
Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More about Middle East geopolitics
LA LIGA FIXTURES
Friday (UAE kick-off times)
Levante v Real Mallorca (12am)
Leganes v Barcelona (4pm)
Real Betis v Valencia (7pm)
Granada v Atletico Madrid (9.30pm)
Sunday
Real Madrid v Real Sociedad (12am)
Espanyol v Getafe (3pm)
Osasuna v Athletic Bilbao (5pm)
Eibar v Alaves (7pm)
Villarreal v Celta Vigo (9.30pm)
Monday
Real Valladolid v Sevilla (12am)
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
The specs
Engine: 4-litre twin-turbo V8
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2pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 40,000 (Dirt) 1,200m
Winner: AF Senad, Nathan Crosse (jockey), Kareem Ramadan (trainer)
2.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 40,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner: Ashjaan, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinel.
3pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 40,000 (D) 1,700m
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3.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 40,000 (D) 1,700m
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4pm: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Cup Prestige Handicap (PA) Dh 100,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Jawaal, Fernando Jara, Majed Al Jahouri.
4.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 40,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Manhunter, Ryan Curatolo, Mujeeb Rahman.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
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