On April 27 and 28, when protesters attacked banks and clashed with the Lebanese army in Tripoli, activist and protest coordinator Marianne Richa felt like she was reliving her memories of Lebanon’s civil conflict.

“It was like war,” Richa told Al-Monitor about the two days. “Monday and Tuesday, I thought I’m back in 1989 and 1990.”

She recounted how new groups of “hungry” protesters had joined demonstrators in Tripoli’s central square the night of April 27, when security forces fired rubber bullets, tear gas and even live gunfire as protesters burned bank branches and headed toward local politicians’ residences in the city. The next two days saw demonstrators continuing to attack financial institutions, facing off with Lebanese army tanks and security forces’ batons.

After a tenuous standstill reached during Lebanon’s coronavirus lockdown, protests and riots have reemerged in Lebanon and spread to various cities over the past week. An ongoing economic meltdown, a currency inflation crisis and rapidly declining standards of living exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic have inspired attacks on the country’s financial institutions and have persuaded many demonstrators to abandon peaceful forms of protest out of anger and despair.