BEIRUT (Reuters) – Three Lebanese men died in altercations on Monday related to scarce fuel supplies, an army statement and security source said, as the country reels from a long-running economic crisis.
Lebanon’s currency has lost more than 90% of its value in less than two years, causing shortages of fuel, electricity and medicines.
The crisis deepened this week, with acute shortages of the fuel needed to run generators and lines returning to gasoline stations.
One man was killed during an argument over a petrol fill-up in the Danniyeh region in northern Lebanon, the army statement said. Two others were killed in Tripoli, the statement said, in what a security source said was also a dispute over fuel.
With Lebanon’s political elite in deadlock over the formation of a new Cabinet, local media showed Lebanese staging small protests in different parts of the country, complaining of the shortages and government inaction.
Lebanon began subsidizing fuel as a result of the crisis, but had to increase prices recently. The central bank asked the government in June for permission to dip into its mandatory reserves in order to finance imports.
(Reporting by Laila Bassam; Additional reporting and writing by Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Peter Cooney)
