World Food Program to provide $5.4 billion in aid to Lebanon

Lebanese people wait outside a currency exchange office in Beirut, January 5, 2022. REUTERS - MOHAMED AZAKIR

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

The UN World Food Program (WFP) will grant $5.4 billion in aid to Lebanon to help the local population and Syrian refugees in the country plunged into a terrible economic crisis, said on Monday Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

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With our correspondent in Beirut,

The amount of $5.4 billion will make it possible to meet the basic needs of the categories hardest hit by the crisis that has hit Lebanon since 2019. One million Syrian refugees and as many Lebanese will benefit for three years from "

cash,” the director of the World Food Program in Beirut, Abdallah al-Wardat, said on Monday.

The crisis in Lebanon is one of the worst in the world

for more than 150 years, according to the World Bank.

It plunged nearly 80% of the Lebanese into poverty.

The presence of one million Syrian refugees, or 1/5th of the population, has aggravated the situation.

The depreciation of the national currency, which has lost 95% of its value, and galloping inflation have destroyed purchasing power and eroded the middle class.

The minimum wage, which was the equivalent of 450 dollars before the crisis, is worth 20 dollars today.

Hundreds of thousands of families only survive thanks to foreign aid or money transfers operated by the diaspora.

In early November, the United States offered $80 million for the operation of water pumping stations.

In May, the World Bank released 150 million to stabilize the price of bread.

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