'No accountability' for Beirut port blast as businesses reopen after self-funded rebuild

The National

3 days ago

Victims of the Beirut port blast say they have not received promised insurance payouts and still await accountability for those responsible for the devastation − as impacted businesses continue to search for answers, reparations and justice, five years on.
Much of the reconstruction was carried out by residents and business owners with support from Lebanese expatriate community, international aid agencies and NGOs, analysts say.
The Beirut port explosion, triggered by improper storage of nearly 3,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, killed more than 220 people, injured thousands and flattened large parts of the capital on August 4, 2020. No high-ranking officials have been convicted over the blast.
At the time, the World Bank estimated that the explosion caused losses of more than $8 billion, with severe damage to buildings and infrastructure, and economic decline from the numerous businesses affected.
Lebanon's real gross domestic product contracted by 24.6 per cent in 2020, largely because of the blast, with a contraction of 33.2 per cent in the third quarter if that year, Beirut-based Byblos Bank said.
'There's been no accountability,' Nasser Saidi, a former economy minister and deputy governor of Lebanon's central bank, told The National f rom Beirut.
The inquiry has repeatedly been hampered by political interference, legal challenges and the removal of lead investigators, leaving victims' families still searching for answers.
Mr Saidi said: 'We have not seen a report, a verifiable report, of why the explosion took place. This issue of accountability is important because it covers the overall perception that things happen in Lebanon – disasters, economic collapse – and there is no accountability.'
Who paid?
The Lebanese government has failed to help businesses and people affected by the blast, Mr Saidi said.
'The state has been nearly absent. So what has happened is that it is the private-sector people who rebuilt their own lives and businesses and homes … supported by NGOs, charities and the like … and the Lebanese expatriate community was the main contributor to reconstruction,' he said.
However, 'not everything has been rebuilt, but a good part of the homes and small businesses have started again and its mainly because of external finance,' Mr Saidi said. His own apartment was damaged in the blast and he rebuilt it himself.
Lebanon was in the throes of economic crisis when the blast ripped through the port, with the Lebanese pound losing more than 90 per cent of its value against the US dollar on the black market after decades of financial mismanagement and corruption by ruling elite.
The country's economy went into a tailspin after the government defaulted on about $31 billion of Eurobonds in March 2020.
Lebanon's economy shrank about 58 per cent between 2019 and 2021, with its GDP plummeting to $21.8 billion in 2021, from about $52 billion in 2019, the World Bank said in a report in 2022, calling it the world's worst economic collapse since the 1850s.
The Covid outbreak in early 2020 exacerbated the situation, with the private sector contracting amid a drop in demand and rising inflation.
Food and dining, hospitality, retail, real estate and the commercial sector are those to have reopened for business.
Michael Young, a senior editor at the Malcolm H Kerr Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut, said he too had to spend his own savings to repair his damaged apartment.
'I was told the state would pay me a share and the army came twice to my home to assess damages. I didn't get a cent, however, and had to pay several thousand dollars out of my own pocket. I suspect this was widespread and many businesses simply closed, as the blast came on top of the financial collapse and Covid crisis,' he said.
Calculating the cost
The World Bank in a preliminary report after the blast put total estimated costs at $8.1 billion – $4.6 billion in damage to infrastructure and physical assets, and $3.5 billion in economic losses as a result of the decline in Lebanese output.
Housing, transport and cultural assets, including religious and archaeological sites and national monuments, were badly affected.
Physical damage in the housing sector was estimated at between $1.9 billion and $2.3 billion, the cultural sector at $1 billion to $1.2 billion, and the transport and ports sector at between $280 million and $345 million.
The World Bank also estimated the damage to the tourism sector at between $170 million and $205 million, commerce and industry at between $105 million and $125 million, and health care at $95 million to $115 million. It put damage to the financial sector at between $10 million and $15 million.
'Beirut continues to grapple with the aftermath of the blast, especially in the areas most affected by the explosion,' said Samer Talhouk, senior economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
'Some businesses in the affected areas have closed down permanently, while some damage can still be seen, especially in the lower income areas adjacent to the port.'
Those who delivered
Mr Talkhouk said economic activity in affected areas has recovered but not to pre-blast levels.
'There are some businesses that have closed permanently and not reopened, while new business have replaced some old ones in the area.'
The rebuilding process has largely been driven by private initiatives, NGOs and international aid, rather than the Lebanese government, Mr Talhouk added.
'Many property owners and businesses relied on support from local and international NGOs, diaspora donations and some international agencies. A large portion of people affected have also relied on their savings to rebuild their damaged properties.'
Lebanese banks' arbitrary restrictions on their clients' access to savings in their accounts complicated matters.
On the first anniversary of the blast, the international community pledged about $370 million to help support Lebanon's reconstruction.
French President Emmanuel Macron pledged $120 million, while Joe Biden, US president at the time, announced $100 million in aid.
Germany, Kuwait, Canada and Sweden pledged $50 million, $30 million, $20 million and $14 million, respectively.
'There was lot of foreign aid, especially from Lebanese expatriates around the world, that poured in to support the affected families and neighbourhoods, and to fill the vacuum that the government at the time left behind,' said Nassib Ghobril, chief economist at Byblos Bank.
Port operations
The Beirut port, which suffered extensive damage, has not resumed to full operations as the heavily destroyed part has yet to be rebuilt, Mr Ghobril said.
The port suffered damage of about $350 million in the explosion, the World Bank said.
The container processing section, however, is 'functioning normally, with the most recent figures showing the port of Beirut was the entry point for 61 per cent of Lebanon's merchandise imports in the first five months of 2025, while it was the exit point of 41.2 per cent of merchandise exports in the same period of time'.
But the port has not just been overcoming the aftermath of the blast, it has also been dealing with Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping that have impacted the maritime industry, analysts say.
In the second quarter of 2020, before the blast, Beirut port was ranked 120th in UNCTAD's Port Liner Shipping Connectivity Index. By the second quarter of 2025, the port's ranking had plummeted to 133rd.
However, despite this most recent drop, the port's ranking had improved in to 85th position in the first quarter of 2024, indicating signs of recovery after the blast. However, this was undone by the impact of the Houthis' Red Sea attacks on shipping.
'The subsequent fall in ranking can very likely be attributed to the rerouting of ships due to Houthi attacks in the Red Sea,' Niels Rasmussen, Bimco's head of shipping market analysis, told The National. 'The re-routing not only reduced the number of ships transiting the Suez Canal but also the number of ships continuing into the Eastern Mediterranean after having sailed around the Cape of Good Hope.'
Business owners speak out
Charbel Bassil, owner of Le Chef restaurant:
Le Chef is one of Beirut's oldest restaurants owned by Charbel Bassil. It's a family-owned business that is very popular among tourists and locals for its homestyle dishes and affordable prices. Damage from the port explosion forced the popular Gemmayzeh spot to close down for the first time since Francois Bassil, Mr Charbel's father, opened the restaurant in 1967.
When the blast happened, business was slow due to the coronavirus pandemic and Lebanon's economic crisis. Lockdown measures meant the restaurant was open only a few days a week, and would usually serve only a few tables.
At the time of the explosion, Mr Charbel had two customers. The blast destroyed everything he and two of his staff were injured, one badly.
The restaurant was shut down for four months. In December 2020, it was able to reopen with the help of a community fund-raiser launched by loyal customers. A generous donation of $5,000 by actor Russell Crowe helped Le Chef open its doors again.
The Gladiator actor made the pledge in memory of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, who featured Le Chef twice on his TV show No Reservations.
Mr Bassil said: 'Some people called me and said they wanted to help us rebuild. I didn't know what to say, so I consulted my brother because we're a family business, and he said 'why not, whatever support people offer us, God will give them back twofold'.'
'We're blessed with people's love and support, we thank God for this gift and we thank God that we were able to survive this.
'Our plan was to work and rebuild with the money we make, this is how we have done it over the past decades, through all of Lebanon's crises. But we were open to people helping us and we appreciate it.'
Business has since returned to normal but Mr Charbel says there's always a sense of fear in Lebanon of what comes next.
'We're tired, we just want some peace, we want calm, we're tired of all the crises. But regardless, we resist and we live, what else can we do?'
He could not say how much the business had lost.
Mohamad Al Ayan, owner of a convenience store:
Mohamad Al Ayan, 38, who owns a convenience store in Sodeco in east Beirut, spoke of how he struggled to rebuild his damaged shop after the blast.
The area is around 3km from the port but still suffered extensive damage. Although it was during the pandemic, he had permission to open until 3pm.
'It was the worst day of my life because we were stuck inside for 15 minutes, we didn't know what was going on. It was dark, there was screaming.'
Initially he thought the city's tallest building, Sama Beirut, opposite the shop, had been bombed, such was the extent of the damage to his shop.
'It was like a nightmare,' he added.
Mr Al Ayan stayed until midnight to fix his electricity feed and rebuild the front door so no one could break in. He remembers how all of the businesses and buildings in the area were 'broken', their shopfronts destroyed and glass shattered.
Much of Al Ayan's inventory was destroyed and an expensive fridge was ripped from its position and flung outside by the blast. He doesn't remember exactly how much the damage cost but it was a lot for a small business. It would be at least two days until he could reopen.
'I paid a lot of money. Many thousands. No one gave me one dollar,' he said.
He paid for everything himself and did not have any insurance. No one from the government came to offer support or visit. Some NGOs made inquiries but 'disappeared'.
Mr Al Ayan has worked in the area for more than a decade and knows his fellow business owners well. He believed they were all in the same position, forced to fend for themselves.
'Beirut was destroyed. I don't want to remember anything, I don't want to be traumatised again. But everything after August 4 was changed. We are different people. They [the authorities] killed the fear inside us.'
William Dobson, co-owner of Aaliya's Books:
William Dobson, who was co-owner of the much-loved Aaliya's Books in Gemmayzeh, can tell you the rough financial cost the bookshop and cafe incurred when the Beirut blast came crashing through its doors and windows.
In the aftermath, Aaliya's received £35,000 ($46,200) in donations from a crowdfunding campaign organised by a former customer based in the UK, $7,500 from a British government initiative that helped replenish its stock of books and a few thousand dollars from an insurance policy − the insurance company's own offices were badly damaged in the explosion.
This was balanced against costs of about $100,000 − both for refurbishing Aaliya's and the impact of Covid-19 on business.
But Mr Dobson says the greatest cost in many ways was the emotional toll from the unrelenting uncertainty brought by the explosion, Lebanon's economic crises, the pandemic and Israel's war in the country.
Aaliya's managed to survive almost all of these, but finally closed in December 2024, as the impact of Israel's war against Hezbollah became just too much.
'Even post-explosion and post-recovery, what you end up losing is ambition,' said Mr Dobson.
'Ambition was lost, not just in terms of the people who were working for us and who saw less of a future for themselves, but also, I think, for us. We felt less ambitious in what we were able to achieve and we felt less confident in the thing that we were doing.'
Aaliya's was set up in 2016 to be something new − a fresh space that allowed people to talk and express themselves, 'not driven by profit but driven by value'.
Mr Dobson said he wanted the bookshop to be somewhere where people could thrive; where they could 'start off as a busboy and become a manager'.
'When you're trying to do something and you think you're making a difference and you see the differences that you are making. You're seeing people read, you're seeing people coming to storytelling nights,' he said.
Mr Dobson recalled when Aaliya's first opened, 300 people came to storytelling event by a collective called Cliffhangers.
'It was kind of indicative of something more compelling, that there was a yearning for spaces like this in the city and at a specific moment in time,' he said.
'And that became harder to justify after the explosion. Because it almost felt like, what's the point in making micro-improvements when you can see every single one of those improvements disintegrate − both literally and figuratively − in the space of 30 seconds.'