Lebanon to demolish blast-hit Beirut silos

Lebanon demanded the demolishment on Beirut’s grain silos, at risk of breakdown following a devastating 2020 port explosion, on Thursday, in spite of calls to save them as a memorial site.

“We tasked the Council for Development and Reconstruction with supervising the demolition process,” said Information Minister Ziad Makari. After a cabinet official meeting, without notifying a time frame.

Makari said the decision of government was based on a recent report by Lebanon’s Khatib and Alami Engineering Company that warned that the silos in the port of the capital Beirut could collapse within months.

“Repairing them will cost a lot,” Makari said.

Last year, Swiss company Amann Engineering also called for their demolition, saying the most damaged of the silos were tilting at a rate of two millimeters per day.

Once boasting a capacity of more than 100,000 tones, the imposing 48 meter (157 foot) high structure has become emblematic of the catastrophic August 4 port blast that killed more than 200 people and damaged swathes of the capital in 2020.

The silos absorbed much of the blast’s impact, shielding large swaths of west Beirut from its ravaging effects.

Activists and some relatives of blast victims have called for the grain silos to be preserved as a memorial site.

“The silos are a witness to the massacre you committed against us,” said a statement last month by the victim’s families, referring to authorities.

“They will not be demolished, no matter how hard you try.”

To assuage potential anger over the decision, the cabinet on Thursday tasked the interior and culture ministries with erecting a monument commemorating the victims of the explosion.

Authorities say the blast was caused by a shipment of ammonium nitrate fertilizer that caught fire after being impounded for years on end in haphazard conditions.

Investigations in the tragedy been paused for months over what rights groups and kith and kens of the victims have decried as political practicing.

Human Rights previous year accused officials of government, parliament and the country’s security agencies of negligence that led to the scene.