A child in Lebanon. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today/File photo)
BEIRUT — "Everything is on a negative track" for Lebanon's humanitarian situation, UN Lebanon coordinator Imran Riza said Thursday, as years of financial crisis in the country have left "approximately 3.9 million people" in need of assistance.
"We estimate that there are approximately 3.9 million people in need in Lebanon, including 2.1 million Lebanese, 180,000 Palestinian refugees, over 31,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria, and 1.5 million Syrians," Riza said at a UN press conference.
"Food insecurity has increased significantly. Everything is on a negative track in terms of needs and the humanitarian situation. Resources are decreasing while needs are increasing." He also pointed out that the situation in Lebanon "does not receive the attention that other situations do." "We are extremely concerned about it," he asserted.
Thousands of people have fallen below the poverty line since Lebanon's financial crisis began unfurling in 2019. Meanwhile, Lebanon claims to host over 1.5 million Syrian refugees, the highest number of refugees per capita in the world. Some 800,000 of them are UN-registered.
Riza also expressed his concern for the Lebanese middle class, as well as for young Lebanese who choose to "become part of the diaspora rather than staying in Lebanon."
"We have this situation in Lebanon where in the last four years the needs across all populations have increased dramatically." He added that "the crisis in Lebanon is not due to the Syrians but is due to all sorts of other issues," while the presence of Syrian refugees "certainly makes the situation much more difficult."
Riza also pointed out that "many Lebanese institutions are not functioning at the moment" due to the economic situation, but also because of the country's nearly one-year presidential vacancy.
"The macro reforms are still subject to the political impasse: there's no president, there's a caretaker government, and we are not getting movement on the macro reforms at this point," he said. "We do understand that reforms need to take place, so we are trying to push as much as we can on that front."
In April 2022, Lebanon reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF for a $3 billion loan over four years, but since then, authorities have failed to implement the substantial reforms required. In September, the IMF once again criticized Lebanon for its leaders' failure to implement the reforms needed to unlock international aid.
