BEIRUT: During the civil war that ended over 30 years ago Abla Barotta survived shelling and clashes, but she now fears a “slow death” from Lebanon’s worst economic crisis in decades. The 58-year-old mother of three is a survivor who worries she will soon join the more than 50 percent of Lebanese today living in poverty. Echoing a common refrain on television and at public gatherings, Barotta said even the worst days of the war weren’t this tough. But after the conflict ended in 1990, with 150,000 people killed and 17,000 missing, bitter political divisions continued to plague Lebanon. but we never lived through anything like this economic crisis,” Barotta said in her Beirut home, which was hard hit by the August 4 explosion.

Source: Manila Times April 11, 2021 09:45 UTC