World Food Programme gives Lebanon $5.4bn for citizens, Syrians

BEIRUT: Crisis-hit Lebanon has secured $5.4 billion in aid over three years from the UN´s World Food Programme (WFP), Lebanon´s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced on Monday.

The country has been mired since 2019 in a financial crisis dubbed by the World Bank as one of the worst in recent history. “The WFP executive board has decided in its latest meeting in Rome to allocate $5.4 billion to Lebanon over the next three years,” Mikati told a press conference in Beirut alongside the agency´s representative in Lebanon, Abdallah Alwardat.

According to the premier, the aid money will be “shared equally” by Lebanese citizens and Syrian refugees. Around two million Syrian refugees are in Lebanon. Nearly 830,000 of them are registered with the United Nations.