In the absence of a state: Akkar’s struggles hold Lebanon in the balance

Most of Akkar’s residents are watching the incidents that almost dragged the entire country into a conflict they have nothing to do with. When they hear news about them on TV, they just smile and reiterate one truth: the state forgot we exist.       

Mohammad is from the small town of Darouza, a town where modern staples of Lebanese life have yet to reach. Running water, electricity and sectarian strife have left this idyllic town untouched. The residents are living in a real state of coexistence that does not resemble the one we see in the Tourism Ministry’s ads.          

In towns across Akkar, everyone is rejecting sedition and cursing those who spurred it. They are suffocated by deprivation and do not understand why the state is standing still while their sons are being killed on the streets. “We are the army’s reservoir; our sons’ blood maintained its unity”.         

Akkar is not a simple town in north Lebanon; it houses dozens of towns and hundreds of thousands of Lebanese waiting for the return of the state, hoping that it will come back before the situation explodes.