Situation in Lebanon: hunger begins to take lives

The famine revolt is at its peak in Lebanon. A quarrel that is not new and that will probably not diminish with the economic crisis that brought down the value of the country’s currency, amplifying the crisis the legitimacy of the neoliberal government. Thousands of protesters returned to the streets, blocked several routes and attacked banks since Sunday.

Even before the global recession, the collapse of oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic, Lebanon is in the midst of an economic and financial crisis. The confinement had put an end to the protests started in October last year, against successive governments that transmit the consequences of the crisis to the working class, spreading misery throughout the country.

At the beginning of the previous year, poverty was already hovering between 50% with an unemployment rate of 46% according to the Lebanese president. This poverty worsened with the establishment in mid-March of national containment to deal with COVID-19. An estimated 75% of the population needs help in a country of around six million people. The virus has increased unemployment and poverty, while hunger is spreading across the country, problems for more and more social strata of the working class to a drop in their standard of living.

It is denoted about the country, that the people are very desperate submerged in a set of genuine reactions of hopelessness, frustration and pain. What Lebanese protesters manage to say by raising their voices is that people across Lebanon are digging through landfills for food and asking for bread. The least visible are the country’s most vulnerable communities, refugees and migrant workers, who activists say suffer unprecedented serious food insecurity.

Situation in Lebanon

Lebanon is one of the countries that has received more Syrian refugees in recent years and these refugees are among the most vulnerable sectors and exposed to the virus, but also to the misery that in other places increases the risk of contamination and serious symptoms.

The Lebanese economy has experienced a global shock to the outbreak of the Coronavirus, which raised the dollar. Everyday life in the country, which depends on imported products bought with dollars, has literally been paralyzed. The Lebanese state declared bankruptcy on March 9 due to the outbreak of the virus that is plaguing all humanity, and the great fall in oil prices.

While banks were no longer able to supply dollars to people, the fact that people can only use dollars in everyday life, the current situation deepened the crisis. The Lebanese lira fell by 40 %. The Lebanese economy, which is struggling with food inflation, extreme impoverishment and unemployment, cannot handle such an extraordinary situation.

Because of the Coronavirus outbreak, workers are losing jobs worldwide. The curfews and quarantines that governments implemented as a precaution against the outbreak cause millions to starve to death in their homes. While it was only a matter of time before the streets evacuated by the pandemic filled up again, people in Lebanon took to the streets because they literally face hunger, which is expected to continue happening in the coming months, with an increase in more food crisis.

Pierre El Sokhn