Summary
It's 4 a.m. in Tripoli, and the gloomy atmosphere coupled with the sleep-deprived faces in Abdel Hamid Karami Square sum up the general scene in the battered northern city.
The deteriorating security in Tripoli is taking its toll on the daily lives of those residing in the northern city, where universities and schools have closed their doors along with the markets, exacerbating an already dire economic crisis.
Similar stories from Tripoli have emerged in recent years, but one in particular sparked an uproar on social media: The impending closure of Nafez al-Masri's renowned fragrance shop in the Al-Tal neighborhood.
Facing Masri's shop is that of the head of the Merchants' Association in Tripoli, Asaad Hariri, who has remained ensconced within it.
Hariri fondly recalled the days when he used to take huge sums of cash in hand from his shop in Al-Tal past the morning crowds of the city to the Arab Bank, where he would deposit it. At that time Tripoli markets were bustling with customers who came from all over the country.
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