Beirut explosion: 1,500 Ghanaians stranded in Lebanon to be evacuated

The government of Ghana has served notice that it is looking forward to evacuating over 1,500 Ghanaians stranded in Lebanon following the devastating explosion in Beirut on August 4, 2020, that killed at least 200 people and injured around 5,000 others.

Charles Owiredu, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, said the process is being expedited adding that some Ghanaians sustained injuries but none died in the explosion.

According to him, "In the specific case of Lebanon, we were going to run twice because looking at the numbers, we have over 2000 people there. As we speak now we’ve brought home over 500. We are left with over 1,500 so today at about 10:50 pm, a flight will touch down with about 308 people from Beirut, Lebanon and on Thursday, another close to 308 will also come. Per my conversations from the Ambassador there, when the blast occurred some of our people got hurt but not to the extent that we can say that they are deformed so it is good that everything went on well."

He added that the government will pay the full cost of quarantine of the returnees.

Kennedy Agyapong, Member of Parliament for Assin Central, after the explosion donated $428,650 to the government to support the evacuation of more than 700 stranded Ghanaians in Lebanon.

He contributed $200,000 himself, while he mobilised the rest through an appeal he launched for other Ghanaians to support.

The support will help cover the evacuation of the fourth and fifth batches scheduled for August 11 and 13, respectively.