Lebanon’s descent into humanitarian crisis

Beirut’s street violence on 14 October was all too familiar for a country that can still remember its civil war.

Shia fighters from Hezbollah and Amal take aim during clashes in a southern suburb of Beirut, on 14 October. — Shia fighters from Hezbollah and the Amal Movement take aim amidst clashes in a southern suburb of the capital Beirut on 14 October. (Photo by IBRAHIM AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)

In the schools of central Beirut, children cowered under their desks in the same way their parents had 30 years before: trapped in the middle of factional violence.

It looked like a scene from the Lebanese Civil War (1975-90). The same groups. The same front line. The same look of terror on the faces of civilians cradling their children as they fled their homes. The same rekindling of trauma as Lebanon was dragged deeper into instability, yet again.