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Washington DC, °®Âþµº: On the one-year anniversary of the , mourners around the world marked the tragic day.

At the Khalil Gibran memorial in Washington, DC on Tuesday night, a crowd gathered with candles to honour the more than 200 people who perished on 4 August 2020 in that wounded more than 7,500 and left .

The fire and explosions, which happened in short succession, took place at the Port of Beirut caused by a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate that had been repeatedly flagged over the years as a safety threat.

Opinion: "Western governments sensed an opportunity to meet long-standing policy objectives of isolating 's ruling coalition due to its alliance with ," writes Habib Battah.

— °®Âþµº (@The_NewArab)

"My wife is Lebanese, and we were visiting when the explosion happened," Sophien Ben-Achour, a Tunisian American from Washington, who was visiting the vigil with friends, told °®Âþµº. "This is a good way for people to have closure. But they don't really have closure. They need justice."

The massive explosion - which was - came at a time when Lebanon had already been grappling with a severe financial crisis, with a depleted lira that plunged much of the population into poverty. The explosion exacerbated an already-dire situation.

Ibrahim Mardam-Bey, who attended the vigil with his son, Sami, was in the US when the explosion happened. Originally from Beirut, he left in 1975 - the year Lebanon's civil war started. He normally visits the country several times a year but has not returned since the port explosion.

"It was so shocking. My family was there. This is one symptom of a country in really bad shape," he told °®Âþµº.

Brooke Anderson is °®Âþµº's correspondent in Washington DC, covering US and international politics, business, and culture.

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