World leaders on 9 August pledged more than €250 million for disaster-struck Lebanon, conference host France said, with the emergency aid to be delivered “directly” to a population reeling from the deadly port blast in Beirut.
Fifteen government leaders including US President Donald Trump took part in the virtual conference hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and the UN, pledging solidarity with the Lebanese people and promising to muster “major resources” in the coming days and weeks.
A joint statement issued after the meeting in which representatives of nearly 30 countries, as well as the EU and Arab League, participated, did not mention a global amount.
But Macron’s office said the total figure of “emergency aid pledged or that can be mobilised quickly” amounts to €252.7 million, including €30 million from France.
Macron was the first world leader to visit the former French colony after the devastating explosion of a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate which killed more than 150 people, wounded some 6,000, and left an estimated 300,000 homeless.
The joint statement from the world leaders and their representatives underscored concerns about Lebanese government corruption.
“The participants agreed that their assistance should be timely, sufficient and consistent with the needs of the Lebanese people, well-coordinated under the leadership of the United Nations, and directly delivered to the Lebanese population, with utmost efficiency and transparency,” it said.
USAID acting administrator John Barsa also said in a conference call that American help, some $15 million announced so far, “is absolutely not going to the government.”
The UN said some $117 million will be needed for an emergency response over the next three months, for health services, emergency shelter, food distribution and programmes to prevent further spread of COVID-19, among other interventions.
Apart from heads of state and government ministers, the conference was attended by UN aid coordinator Mark Lowcock, representatives of the World Bank, the Red Cross, the IMF, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
According to the UN, at least 15 medical facilities, including three major hospitals, sustained structural damage in the blast, and extensive damage to more than 120 schools may interrupt learning for some 55,000 children.
Thousands of people are in need of food and the blast interrupted basic water and sanitation to many neighborhoods.
France has been sending tonnes of medical and food aid, dozens of search and rescue personnel, and forensic experts to aid the investigation, as well as reconstruction materials.
On top of cash aid pledged so far, Egypt and Qatar have promised field hospitals, Brazil said it would send 4,000 tonnes of rice, and Spain 10 tonnes of wheat.
Original source: EURACTIV
Published on 10 August 2020
