Lebanon is grappling with one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises, affecting nearly 4 million people who urgently require food and other assistance.
However, due to a lack of funding, less than half of this population is receiving the aid they desperately need, warns Imran Riza, the UN humanitarian chief for Lebanon.
Riza highlighted that the level of assistance provided by the United Nations is “much less than the minimum survival level” typically distributed.
Over the past four years, Lebanon has been confronted with a series of overlapping crises, described by the World Bank as one of the 10 most severe financial and economic crises since the mid-19th century.
This has resulted in a dramatic increase in humanitarian needs across all segments of the population.
Since the onset of the financial meltdown in October 2019, Lebanon’s political leadership, accused of decades of corruption and mismanagement, has resisted implementing the economic and financial reforms requested by the international community.
Despite initiating talks with the International Monetary Fund in 2020 to secure a bailout, the country’s leaders have been hesitant to implement necessary changes after reaching a preliminary agreement last year.
Riza pointed out that Lebanon has been without a president for almost a year, and many of its institutions are dysfunctional.
Additionally, there is still no political resolution in Syria, adding to the complexity of the situation.
The UN estimates that approximately 3.9 million people in Lebanon urgently need humanitarian assistance, including 2.1 million Lebanese, 1.5 million Syrians, 180,000 Palestinian refugees, over 31,000 Palestinians from Syria, and 81,500 migrants.
Last year, the UN provided aid to about a million Syrians and slightly fewer than 950,000 Lebanese.
Riza expressed deep concern, stating that “everything is on a negative track.” In 2022, the UN received around 40 percent of the required funding, and the trend so far this year is similar. He emphasized that the resources are decreasing while the needs are increasing, underscoring the critical nature of the situation in Lebanon, which he feels does not receive the attention it deserves.
