More than one million in Lebanon face acute food insecurity, UN says

BEIRUT: More than one million people in Lebanon face acute food insecurity, the United Nations warned on Wednesday, following years of war and economic crisis.

Lebanon has endured two successive wars with neighboring Israel since 2023 and remains mired in an unprecedented economic collapse triggered seven years ago.

Nearly a quarter of the population face crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse, said a joint statement by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Programme and the Lebanese agriculture ministry.

They called for “urgent action” to alleviate the situation.

The number is expected to rise to 1.15 million by the middle of next year, they added.