One of the most prominent humanitarian disasters in the world: Lebanon on the brink of major famine

5th January 2023

1 minute read

The dire situation in Lebanon means that the number of children dealing with “crisis” levels of hunger could rise by 14 per cent if fast action is not taken, said Save the Children. Four out of 10 Lebanese and Syrian refugee children live in “acute food insecurity,” the third or highest level in the IPC index of acute food insecurity.

The third phase is considered a “crisis”, the fourth phase an “emergency” and the fifth a “famine disaster”. Research conducted in the fourth quarter of 2022 showed that 37% of Lebanon’s population face the third or higher level of food insecurity in the IPC classification.

impending famine

The National, an international newspaper, reported that this will rise to 42% without any action in the first quarter of 2023, while the number of people living in an “emergency” situation of food insecurity will rise by 50,000 to 354,000. Save the Children regional director Jennifer Moorehead said, “The crisis in Lebanon is increasingly a children’s crisis. “The first five years of a child’s life are crucial, and we fear that without enough nutritious food to eat, an increasing number of children will become malnourished, or even face starvation,” she said. “Families are telling us that they are forced to skip meals or reduce the number of nutritious meals for their children.

This is partly due to a crippling financial crisis that has left many residents trapped in poverty and led to widespread shortages of medicines, clean water and electricity, the paper said. Lebanon also hosts more than one million Syrian refugees who fled the 12-year conflict in neighboring Syria. The local currency has depreciated against the US dollar in the parallel market by more than 95%, and salaries have not kept pace with rampant inflation.

According to Save the Children, Lebanon is suffering its sixth worst food crisis for an unsafe proportion of the population, after South Sudan, Yemen, Haiti, Afghanistan and the Central African Republic.