Deadly stone attacks expose gaps in Beirut’s road surveillance

Report by Lara El Hachem, English adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian

A stone killed a man named Mohammad in Beirut, while another nearly killed a second young man. Behind both incidents was a man who told the Information Branch that he threw the stones not to rob anyone, but simply to relieve his frustration when he felt tired.

He would walk from the Sabra area to the airport road, carry out the act, and then leave, disappearing from sight.

This is an isolated case that warrants particular attention, but it also raises a broader question: What protects Lebanon’s roads, particularly the airport road and the roads leading to it, from similar dangers, and who is responsible for that protection?

Following Mohammad’s death, Lebanon’s interior minister called for enhanced security measures and increased patrols along the airport road. But patrols alone are not enough.

Along the road from the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium toward the Kuwaiti Embassy, there are no surveillance cameras connected to the Internal Security Forces’ operations room. Instead, there are only cameras belonging to security or official institutions, such as embassies.

That is where the search for the cameras and what remains of the traffic control center began.

The center was originally established as part of an urban transport development project funded by the World Bank. Its operations were supposed to be financed through the parking meter project, which fell apart.

First, because of a dispute between the state and the company operating it in 2019. Second, because of the 2019 uprising and the damage inflicted on the parking meters. Then came the Aug. 4, 2020, Beirut Port explosion, which damaged the traffic control center in Corniche al-Nahr and disabled its server.

Six years later, the control center remains without funding or development, leaving Lebanon’s roads without a centralized surveillance camera system.

Currently, a committee has begun assessing the condition of the cameras and related infrastructure in preparation for determining the cost and seeking funding, under the supervision of Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar.

Six years later, the scene resembles so much else in Lebanon: responsibilities being passed around, chaos and deadly bureaucracy, while the solution requires nothing more than a decisive political decision to get the work done.