Angry residents rage at leaders after Beirut blast

• Buhari mourns

• UN supplies arrive

By Bolaji Ogundele, Abuja

People in Beirut have expressed anger at the Lebanese government over what they say was negligence that led to Tuesday’s huge explosion.

Many accused the authorities of corruption, neglect and mismanagement.

But, President Muhammadu Buhari has described the explosion as a monumental tragedy.

Buhari, in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, however, condoled with the Lebanese President, Michel Aoun, and the people of Lebanon, over the disaster.

“President Muhammadu Buhari has condoled with President Michel Aoun and the people of Lebanon over massive explosions that rocked Beirut, the capital city on Tuesday, leaving 137 dead, over 5,000 wounded, and more than 300, 000 displaced.

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“The President also extended the sympathy of government to the large community of Lebanese in Nigeria, praying that God will rest the souls of the dead, comfort the grieving, and grant succour to the wounded and displaced.

“Describing the explosions, suspected to be caused by tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse, as ‘tragedy of monumental proportions’, President Buhari pledged the solidarity and brotherhood of Nigeria to Lebanon at this period of travails,” the statement said.

The blast killed at least 137 people and injured about 5,000 others and dozens are still missing. A two-week state of emergency has begun.

Twenty tonnes of UN supplies to treat people injured by the massive blast in Beirut have reached the Lebanese capital, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

An aircraft has delivered the WHO shipment that covers 1,000 trauma interventions and 1,000 surgeries.

The UN health agency said in a statement that it would distribute the supplies to hospitals across Lebanon that have been receiving patients from Beirut, as three hospitals in the city are no longer functional and two were partially damaged by the explosion.

“The legendary resilience of the Lebanese people has rarely been so severely tested,” the organisation said.

It noted that Tuesday’s chemical accident came on top of civil unrest, an economic crisis, the coronavirus pandemic, and the country’s burden of hosting nearly 900,000 Syrian refugees.