Lebanon marks first anniversary of protest movement

Beirut: Lebanon marks the first anniversary on Saturday of a non-sectarian protest movement that has rocked the political elite but has yet to achieve its goal of sweeping reform. an aerial view shows anti-government protest, Oct. 20, 2019.

A protester stands in front of burning tyres, November 13, 2019. Three prime ministers have resigned since the movement started but the country's barons, many of them warlords from the 1975-90 civil war, remain firmly in power despite international as well as domestic pressure for change.

Riot police fire tear gas, Oct. 18, 2019. Demonstrators plan to march from the main Beirut protest camp towards the port - the site of a devastating August 4 explosion, which has been widely blamed on the alleged corruption and incompetence of the hereditary elite.

There they will hold a candlelit vigil near ground zero at 6:07 pm (1507 GMT), the precise time when a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertiliser exploded, killing more than 200 people and devastating swathes of the capital.

Lebanese activists erect a metalic monument on October 16, 2020, with 'October 17' written on it in Arabic, a day ahead of the one year anniversary of the beginning of a nationwide anti-government protest movement, in front of the devastated port of the capital Beirut where a massive explosion took place more than two months ago.

The immediate trigger for last year's protests was a government move to tax Whatsapp calls, but they swiftly swelled into a nationwide movement demanding an end to the system of confessional power-sharing it says has rewarded corruption and incompetence.

Anti-government protesters shout slogans, Oct. 17, 2019. The country's deepest economic downturn since the civil war has led to growing unemployment, poverty and hunger, pushing many activists to look for better opportunities abroad.

A protester walks with a Lebanese national flag, October 24, 2019. A spiralling coronavirus outbreak since February prompted a ban on public gatherings but even without protesters on the streets public resentment has grown.

A woman, draped in a black-striped Lebanese flag, looks at the site of the massive explosion at Beirut's port area, September 4, 2020. The explosion at Beirut port prompted the protest movement to shift most of its energy to relief operations to fill in for what it sees as an absent state. The protest movement and its supporters are eager to show the virus has not snuffed out their cause.

Anti-government protesters light flares, Nov. 3, 2019. In the northern city of Tripoli, which saw some of the most vibrant protests last year, activists started gathering on Friday night. "We salute our revolution, which we believe is still continuing and will not die until we achieve our demands," said 37-year-old protester Taha Ratl. "We want all of them to quit."

In this file photo taken on August 11, 2020, a Lebanese protester hurls rocks at security forces across a burning barrier amid clashes in downtown Beirut, following a huge explosion that devastated large parts of the capital.