Hello, welcome to the response coronavirus, smartphone recordings from across the globe

describing how COVID-19 and the lockdown is affecting you. I'm Winifred Robinson. In the Middle East and North Africa, nearly half

the population are aged under 24, and that's an advantage in the fight against coronavirus

because it's particularly deadly for older people.

In Lebanon the young population is politically active and people have been on the streets.

Lena Mounza is a writer and translator.

She sent us this recording explaining how lockdown has affected these protests which began over corruption

and the devaluation of their currency.

In mid-March after we'd already had a few coronavirus cases here. The government closed the airport

and the land borders and of course all non-essential businesses were shut down as well.

People were quite disciplined about the lockdown in general. I think because we knew just how unprepared the country was for any sort of crisis of this magnitude.

The government was swift to respond compared to some others, sure, but it's hard not to see that the pandemic was a sort of God-sent for them, getting people off the streets, out of the protest sites, and having them sitting quietly at home.

But you know, we were already in deep economic crisis with people being denied access to

their own money in the banks and rampant unemployment.

The lockdown was essentially a disaster for so many people,

especially day laborers and precarious workers.

The collapse of the Lira in Lebanon has seen desperate people unable to

access their savings and banks have been attacked in what was called a week of

Roth. The journalist, Bell True, saw one protester shouting,

We are starving, and a soldier reply, I'm hungrier than you.

The lockdown crumbled completely when a 26 year old protester was killed.

Funeral processions and vigils were held for him all over the country.

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