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The committee report suggested that food prices “will witness a slight increase due to increased import transaction costs after the port explosion.”
“The international community must prioritize food security programs targeting host communities and refugees to reduce the high levels of risk exposure within these two groups and mitigate potential social tensions,” Dashti added.
The United Nations and several other countries have shipped thousands of tons of wheat and other products since the disastrous explosion to avoid a bread shortage in Lebanon.
The explosion severely damaged the port and several neighborhoods of the capital, where 300,000 people still face “lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation services,” the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday.
“As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise, it has become important to ensure that children and families whose lives have been disrupted by the explosion have access to safe drinking water and sanitation,” said the organization’s representative. in Lebanon, Yuki Mokuo.
ESCWA earlier announced earlier this month that the proportion of the poor in the population doubled to 55 percent in 2020, from 28 percent in 2019, and the percentage of people living in extreme poverty increased three times, from eight to 23 percent.
Against the backdrop of the worsening Lebanese crisis, a source close to the Lebanese Finance Ministry told Reuters on Sunday that a prominent member of the negotiating team with the International Monetary Fund had resigned, becoming the third member to leave due to the stalemate in talks.
The official who resigns is Talal Salman, advisor to the Ministry of Finance. A spokeswoman for the ministry declined to comment.
Lebanon began negotiations with the IMF in May after defaulting on its huge sovereign debt, but negotiations stalled in July due to a lack of implementation of reforms and due to disagreement within the Lebanese side over the size of its huge financial losses.
The government, which started the talks, resigned due to the Beirut port bombing, which fueled popular anger at the political elite who are blamed by citizens for problems such as the financial crisis caused by mismanagement and corruption.
