BEIRUT: Power was restored to the city of Baalbek and its neighboring villages Wednesday afternoon, ending a blackout that began the day before when workers fled the power station under threat from armed men.
According to a statement by Electricite du Liban, workers at Baalbek’s power station have received a series of death threats over the last few months from a number of armed men in the station’s surrounding area.
These individuals have been demanding at gunpoint to be provided with power services, causing havoc in the supply of power to the city of Baalbek and its surrounding villages, the statement said. The attacks Tuesday forced the workers to flee in the early afternoon in fear of their lives, resulting in a power outage in the area, the statement added.
EDL’s employees union issued a statement Wednesday apologizing for the power outage and calling on EDL’s administration and the Energy and Water Ministry to put an end to the attacks against the station’s employees.
According to the statement, the Internal Security Forces have an office inside the power station but have no real effect in the face of armed men who “bully” and pressure workers through death threats in order to have power supplied to certain areas.
The union called on the EDL’s administration and the Energy and Water Ministry to take immediate action against the perpetrators, whose names are known, and called on the Lebanese Army to establish a fixed checkpoint facing the power station so that its workers can go to their jobs and provide the area’s residents with electricity.
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