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Lebanon’s Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab has said the monetary aid other nations have promised should be sent now to avert further crisis
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Lebanon has been promised billions of dollars in international assistance
Lebanon’s Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab has urged countries across the world to start sending the monetary aid they promised, even as the nation’s economy spirals amid escalating protests.
Diab said Lebanon was headed to a “social explosion” as its economic and financial crises deepened.
Lebanon has been promised billions of dollars in international aid, but that will come only after the country formulated a plan to weed out corruption.
This corruption is seen by many as the root cause of the country’s current economic crisis, which many say is its worst in around three decades.
However, political partisanship is being blamed for the non-existence of the aforementioned plan to fight corruption.
As a result, the promised aid is stalled as Lebanon sinks deeper into crisis, which has been compounded by last year’s Beirut port blast that led to losses in the billions.
Local reports quoted Diab as saying that withholding this aid threatens the lives of the Lebanese people. “Are the Lebanese people supposed to die at hospital’s doors on the way to holding the corrupt accountable?” Diab said.
This is just one of the problems that the masses are facing in the country. With the Lebanese pound having lost 95% of its value since 2019, the people are now having to contend with a scarcity of fuel, medicine, and basic necessities.
The fuel shortage is such that people are hoarding petrol whenever it becomes available. Meanwhile, most institutions are facing power cuts.
The UN has said more than three out of every four homes in the country don’t have enough food, even as the rate of inflation rises.
Meanwhile, young unemployed professionals are already leaving the country, said the local reports.