Lebanon faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with nearly 4 million people in need of food and other assistance, but less than half getting aid because of a lack of funding, a UN official said on Friday.
Imran Riza, the UN humanitarian chief for Lebanon, adds that the amount of assistance the world body is giving out is “much less than the minimum survival level” that it normally distributed.
Over the past four years, he said, Lebanon has faced a “compounding set of multiple crises” that the World Bank describes as one of the 10 worst financial and economic crises since the mid-19th century. This has led to the humanitarian needs of people across all population sectors increasing dramatically, he said.
Since the financial meltdown began in October 2019, the country’s political class — blamed for decades of corruption and mismanagement — has been resisting economic and financial reforms requested by the international community.
Lebanon started talks with the International Monetary Fund in 2020 to try to secure a bailout, but since reaching a preliminary agreement last year, the country’s leaders have been reluctant to implement needed changes.
Riza noted Lebanon has been without a president for almost a year and a lot of its institutions aren’t working, and there is still no political solution in Syria.
