Lebanese, French officials float plan to rebuild Beirut port nearly 4 years after of huge explosion

Three and a half years after hundreds of tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrate ignited at the Beirut port, setting off one of the world’s biggest non-nuclear explosions, Lebanese and French officials put forward a plan for reconstruction and reorganization of the port Wednesday. The Aug. 4, 2020, explosion at Beirut’s port killed more than 200 people, injured and displaced thousands and devastated entire neighborhoods of the city. Since then, an investigation into the causes of the blast has ground to a halt, and reconstruction of the damaged areas has largely been carried out piecemeal with private funding as international funds promised for rebuilding were largely contingent on political reforms that never materialized.