Lebanon’s Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad resigned as violent protests grow in response to an explosion in the port of Beirut that left more than 150 people dead.
“I want to apologize to the Lebanese people, whose aspirations we were unable to fulfill due to the difficulty of the challenges facing us,” Abdel Samad said in a Sunday statement.
Abdel Samad is one of several government officials who resigned from their post following the blast. She is the second minister to resign from Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s government in a week following Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti, who quit on Monday, according to Al Jazeera.
The explosion is believed to have been sparked by nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate that was stored in a nearby port. The highly explosive chemicals arrived in 2013, but Lebanese officials took no swift action to disperse of the material since then. The explosion has left large swaths of Beirut in shambles and wounded at least 5,000 people. Hundreds of thousands of other residents were left homeless.
Violent protests have escalated in recent days demanding accountability and resignations from public officials over the explosion. Protesters briefly named the Foreign Ministry the headquarters of their movement, setting up gallows and nooses with cardboard cutout images of top Lebanese officials with the message that they need to “resign or hang.”
President Trump recently expressed support for the protests and called for Lebanon to conduct a “full and transparent investigation” into the Beirut blast.
The United States also committed to send $17 million in disaster aid to Lebanon to help the country recover. National security adviser Robert O’Brien said the first wave of aid will provide food, water, and medical supplies to the people of Lebanon.
