BEIRUT: The recent upheaval in Ivory Coast has shed light on the economic clout and vulnerability of Lebanese nationals there, but unrest in West Africa is putting pressure on communities in more than one country.
As more than 8,000 Lebanese expatriates fled the war-torn Ivory Coast, with the government struggling to mount a rescue operation, a Lebanese car dealer was shot dead in Benin’s capital Cotonou earlier this week.
The body of 55-year-old Maroun Kamel, which was transferred from Cotonou to Beirut, was laid to rest in the village of Qrayet in Akkar Thursday.
In a telephone call with The Daily Star, Hassan Hammoud, a leading member of the Lebanese community in Benin, said that armed thugs on motorcycles shot and killed Kamel on his way home from work.
“Perhaps the thieves observed a business deal by Kamel, conducted with cash, and followed him all the way to his house and demanded the money,” said Hammoud, who added that Lebanese expatriates in Benin are mostly car dealers.
Hammoud said that Kamel had only arrived in the country two months ago, as “he moved to Cotonou to help out in his son’s business.”
According to Hammoud, the security incidents targeting Lebanese expatriates and their properties are taking place throughout West Africa and are not specifically related to a single country.
Since the start of the Ivorian conflict in December of last year, the businesses of thousands of Lebanese in key Ivory Coast city Abidjan were targeted, with some reports maintaining that losses amounted to more than $100 million.
Lebanon’s ambassador to Abidjan, Ali Ajami, who also spoke by phone with The Daily Star, said that the notion of attacks targeting Lebanese expatriates was unfounded.
“Amid an absence of security, everyone is being targeted, but because the Lebanese expatriates constitute the mainstream businesses in Ivory Coast, their losses are [being reported] quickly,” said Ajami Thursday.
Ajami added that the situation in Ivory Coast, which witnessed months of violent unrest, has calmed down except in two small towns where former President Laurent Gbagbo’s forces are still defying President Alassane Ouattara and his forces.
“There are many Lebanese who have already returned to Abidjan, after thousands desperately fled the city for Beirut,” said Ajami.
However, although a degree of stability has been restored in Ivory Coast after the arrest of Gbagbo earlier this month, uncertainty and confusion have proved a potent obstacle to people’s return to their work and normal lives in Abidjan.
“I am waiting for the right time to get back,” said the president of Ivory Coast’s Lebanese School, Fadi Assaf.
“I am already bored here … we have lots of work to do there.”
“Work needs to be done to get back 900 students of the school back to classes,” Assaf said, commenting on the fact that the 2010-11 school year has been interrupted as a result of the months-old conflict.
While an estimated 90,000 Lebanese expatriates live in Ivory Coast alone, another 30,000 Lebanese live and work in the neighboring country of Nigeria. According to Lebanon’s ambassador to Abidjan, the African country with the third-largest Lebanese community is Senegal, with over 25,000 Lebanese expatriates living there. Smaller Lebanese communities exist in countries such as Benin and Burkina Faso.
Ajami said that an economic crisis in Burkina Faso has led to problems for Lebanese-owned businesses facing dangers from criminals.
A local newspaper quoted Wednesday a businessman based in Burkina Faso who said that 22 years worth of his savings and capital had been stolen in a single night.
“The incident, which targeted a Lebanese-owned warehouse, was part of the economic turmoil in Burkina Faso,” Ajami said.
While it is difficult to prove the relationship between incidents in different countries, Hammoud, who heads the Lebanese community in Cotonou, said he believes Israeli lobbyists and businessmen have been instigating the targeting of Lebanese businesses.
Hammoud described an Israeli policy that did not require a direct Israeli presence in West Africa to carry out such attacks, arguing instead that Israel had an interest in orchestrating political instability in African countries.
He also touched on the common theme of Beirut’s general indifference to Lebanese nationals abroad, noting that Israelis enjoy more robust support from the government.
“The Lebanese government has only been prompted to act at times of crisis” as in Ivory Coast, he said, “but there are around 5,000 Lebanese expatriates in Benin who also need to be in touch with their government.”