Lebanon: city of Ersal calls for international aid to avoid humanitarian disaster

Syrian refugees in a camp in northeast Lebanon (Illustrative image).

© JOSEPH EID / AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Elected officials from Ersal, located near the Syrian border in the northeast of the country, appealed to the international community for help in fundraising to allow tens of thousands of Syrian refugees to survive in the harsh Lebanese winter.

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From our correspondent in Beirut,

Located on the Anti-Lebanon mountain range, 1,400 meters above sea level, Ersal hosts one of the largest gatherings of displaced Syrians in Lebanon.

Seventy thousand people live there in tents or makeshift shelters, without adequate means of heating.

With the explosion in the price of fuel oil which has increased by 350% in recent months, and the minimum wage which has increased from 450 to 23 dollars due to the crisis, the refugees are no longer able to heat themselves.

The Lebanese state, which no longer provides electricity to its own population, is unable to provide for the needs of Syrian refugees.

Last winter, dozens of people died from the cold or in fires and accidents linked to makeshift heating systems.

$ 5.5 million

United Nations agencies and NGOs can only provide 30% of the budgets needed this year to provide heating for thousands of displaced families.

Faced with the urgency of the situation, the head of the municipality of Ersal, supported by the only NGO still permanently present in the city,

, launched an appeal for international aid.

Bassel Hojeiry hopes to raise $ 5.5 million to avert a humanitarian disaster this winter.

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• Lebanon

• Refugees

• Humanitarian