BEIRUT, Lebanon
Fourteen Lebanese activists have staged a hunger strike in front of the country’s environment ministry to protest Beirut’s ongoing garbage crisis.
On Tuesday, scores of protesters from the popular “You Stink” campaign stormed the headquarters of the ministry in central Beirut and started a sit-in for around three hours before security forces removed them from the building.
“We are not against Minister Mohammad Machnouk [personally], but we are against all officials who steal from us day and night,” Ahmed El-Masri, one of the hunger strikers, told Anadolu Agency.
Campaigners are demanding the resignation of Machnouk -- who, they say, has mismanaged the sanitation crisis -- and Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk for using what they describe as unnecessary force against protesters during earlier demonstrations.
Campaigners also demand that the finances of Lebanon’s municipalities be freed up so that the country’s municipal authorities can manage sanitation in their own jurisdictions.
