Lebanon heads for famine as pandemic accelerates hunger

PanARMENIAN.Net - Lebanon is battling its worst economic crisis in modern history, and now there are fears the country is about to repeat the 1915-18 famine, The Telegraph reports.

In the past week alone, the Lebanese pound has lost over 40% of its value. Millions of people are watching their savings and salaries disappear as food inflation hits nearly 200 per cent.

Hit by its worst economic crisis in modern history, the Lebanese pound has lost over 80% of its value since October, when nationwide anti-corruption protests began to rock the country. Despite a decades-long peg of 1,500 to the dollar, people now widely use the black market value of the pound as a reference of the currency’s real worth.

According to a recent UN report, by the end of April over half of the country was struggling to put the most basic produce on the table as food prices had risen by 56 per cent since October. Preliminary results show that between mid-March and May, they rose by 50 per cent.

Accelerated by the pandemic, unemployment is soaring, the value of wages are plummeting and prices continue to skyrocket. Lebanon is also host to around 1.5m refugees – the most per capita in the world.

And it is no longer refugees and other vulnerable people who are concerned about being able to feed their families as Lebanon’s economic turmoil continues to spiral out of control.