Lebanon to receive food aid from Qatar as the financial situation worsens.
Image Credit: Issam Abdallah/Reuters
The Qatari state news agency QNA reported said that they will be delivering 70 tonnes of food aid every month to Lebanon as the country is crippled by a financial crisis and political impasse. The situation is so bad that the Lebanon’s army chief Joseph Aoun made an urgent request to all world powers during a meeting in France last month to aid their soldiers that had their wages decreased significantly due to the collapse in the Lebanese pound.The wage crisis in Lebanese army is being felt all across the country as there are shortages of essential good and commodities such as medicine and gas. The Lebanese pound which lost 90% of its value since October 2019, left many people unable to afford daily necessities. Many people expressed their anger due to fuel price hikes of 30%r resulting in hours-long queues at petrol stations. Protesters also took the streets a number of times as the country also had sever power shortages, which disrupted medical centres and hospitals amid a surge in coronavirus cases. Some people said that power outages lasted 21 hours a day.
The World Bank said that Lebanon’s financial situation is the World’s worst economic crisis since the 1850s. To complicate the situation further, there is a political deadlock, which has hampered the country from receiving financial aid, as the international community demanded the formation of a new government before they send the aid. Unfortunately, even though there was international pressure, Lebanon’s politicians did not manage to agree on a new government in 11 months. The current caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab said that the country was very days away from a ‘social explosion’.
Linking aid to Lebanon with government formation has started to threaten the lives of Lebanese.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab
The Lebanon’s previous cabinet resigned in August 2020, after a massive explosion in Beirut’s port that killed 200 people. Earlier this month, banks, shops, businesses and government offices took part in a huge strike across Lebanon against the corruption among politicians and country’s economic crisis.
More details to follow.
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