Lebanon Abruptly Nixes Plan for $122M Airport ‘Terminal 2’

A double-decker Airbus A380 plane lands at the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon, March 29, 2018. (AP)
A double-decker Airbus A380 plane lands at the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon, March 29, 2018. (AP)
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Lebanon Abruptly Nixes Plan for $122M Airport ‘Terminal 2’

A double-decker Airbus A380 plane lands at the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon, March 29, 2018. (AP)
A double-decker Airbus A380 plane lands at the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon, March 29, 2018. (AP)

A contract for a new terminal at cash-strapped Lebanon's main airport was cancelled following criticism that no public bidding was held for the $122 million project, Lebanon’s caretaker transportation minister said Thursday.

Lebanon’s government last week announced the plan to construct terminal at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport and said it would be operated by daa International, a leading semi-state-owned airport company in Ireland, when it’s completed in four years.

The long-awaited project was to be the first expansion of Lebanon's only international airport since 1998 come as the country faces its worst economic and financial crisis.

“We will not go forward with the project and we will consider it nonexistent,” Transportation Minister Ali Hamie told reporters on Thursday. He added that the decision came from the Hezbollah group that he represents in the Cabinet.

The announcement came a week after the project was announced and sparked a stream of criticism from media outlets over awarding the contract to an international company without holding a public tender. The airport has operated at full capacity, serving up to 8 million passengers a year.

The would-be Terminal 2 was to handle 3.5 million passengers annually starting in 2027. It was to have added six docking stands as well as remote ones, Hamie said in a ceremony at government headquarters. The plans called for Terminal 2 to be built where the airport’s old cargo building used to stand.

Lebanon is in the throes of its worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history, rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by the country’s political class.

Experts and critics have blasted Lebanon’s rulers for lack of transparency and squandering public money by giving bloated development contracts to businessmen in their circles over recent decades.

Lebanon’s economic crisis that began in October 2019 has left three-quarters of the country’s 6 million people, including 1 million Syrian refugees, in poverty.



Dozens Die of Mysterious Illness in Besieged Sudan Town

FILE PHOTO: Sudanese people, displaced from Jezira state due to RSF violence, sit under a tree in New Halfa, Kassala state, Sudan, November 3, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Sudanese people, displaced from Jezira state due to RSF violence, sit under a tree in New Halfa, Kassala state, Sudan, November 3, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
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Dozens Die of Mysterious Illness in Besieged Sudan Town

FILE PHOTO: Sudanese people, displaced from Jezira state due to RSF violence, sit under a tree in New Halfa, Kassala state, Sudan, November 3, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Sudanese people, displaced from Jezira state due to RSF violence, sit under a tree in New Halfa, Kassala state, Sudan, November 3, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

At least 73 people have died of mysterious causes in the Sudanese town of al-Hilaliya, besieged by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, the Sudanese Doctors Union said late on Wednesday.
It is one of dozens of villages that have come under attack in eastern El Jezira state since the defection of a top RSF commander to the army, which prompted revenge attacks that have displaced more than 135,000 people.
The war between the two forces has created the world's largest humanitarian crisis, displacing more than 11 million and plunging more into hunger while drawing in foreign powers and prompting fears of state collapse, Reuters said.
While high death tolls in other parts of Jezira came as a result of RSF shelling and gunfire, in Hilaliya people have fallen ill with diarrhea, overwhelming a local hospital according to the union and three people from the area.
A network blackout enforced by the RSF has made it difficult to determine the exact cause.
One man who spoke to Reuters said three of his family members had died of the same illness, but he only found out days later when others escaped to an area with internet access.
Those who wish to leave must pay high sums at RSF checkpoints, said another man.
According to pro-democracy activists, the siege began on Oct. 29 when the RSF raided the town, killing five and surrounding residents inside three mosques.
Hilaliya is home to the family of defected commander Abuagla Keikal, which locals say may explain the siege of a previously stable trade hub that had housed 50,000 people, including many displaced from other areas.
The town's markets and warehouses were looted, witnesses said.
Satellite imagery from a Yale Humanitarian Lab report showed rapid increase in cemeteries in several Jezira towns since the latest revenge attacks began in late October. It also showed evidence of the burning of agricultural fields in the village of Azrag.