‘It’s a Long Road to Food Security for Lebanon’

“While many are now returning home,” said Matthew Hollingworth, Country Director for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Beirut, others “face the devastating reality of having no home to return to.”

“Sixty-six days of war have taken a real toll. Nearly a third of the country’s population (of 5.8 million) is suffering from acute food insecurity,” he added.

 

A report published last week (17 January) confirms that 202,000 people are now facing ‘emergency’ levels of food insecurity in the country – double the number before the 27 November ceasefire.

 

Lebanon’s longstanding economic and political instability means any improvements to people’s circumstances and prospects will come very slowly, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) figures – the global standard for measuring food insecurity.

The IPC report projects families will continue to struggle over the next three months as markets try to recover – conflict severely disrupted economic activity and livelihoods across all sectors. 

In 2025, WFP plans to assist 2.5 million people in Lebanon, including almost 900,000 Syrian refugees. Last year, we provided food assistance to 750,000 people displaced by the fighting, supplying hot meals, food supplies, and cash assistance to those in shelters and host communities.

Malnutrition, however, remains a real problem, especially among children, adolescents, and women.

According to a study cited in the report, three in four children aged under-5 have very little diversity in their diets, leaving them vulnerable to stunting (impaired growth due to malnutrition) and wasting (low weight for height). 

‘My pregnancy is the only thing that makes me forget the war’

Among the people WFP is assisting in Lebanon is Nada (surname withheld to protect her privacy). A nurse in her early thirties, she is expecting twins. S

he and her husband were forced to leave their home in southern Lebanon after cross-border attacks along the Israel-Lebanon border significantly intensified in October 2023.

They moved from one place to another. At one point, fearing nowhere in Lebanon was safe, they even crossed the border into Syria. “It was a long journey but after two weeks I decided to come back no matter what,” she said.

The couple finally settled in Aramoun, a town 22km from Beirut. “My pregnancy is the only thing that makes me forget about the war,” Nada said. 

“I’m in my fifth month … so my doctor told me to be mindful of my food. I also need to take supplements – iron, calcium, and medicine for blood circulation because I’m having cramps in my leg.”

Nada receives US$65 a month from WFP to cover critical expenses. She is afraid she may come to need a caesarean which she cannot afford. Her husband struggles to find cash-in-hand work as a painter and decorator.

Still, “thank God we are safe now,” she said, recalling the escalation of conflict in September. “I was so afraid of the warplanes breaking the sound barrier. We could see Dahieh (Beirut southern suburbs) being hit from here.”

Nada adds that she had just made her house “ready to host guests” when the conflict erupted. “We had just moved in as a newly married couple. I went to visit my family for their blessings, and then the war erupted. All the joy was gone.”

WFP urgently needs US$351 for emergency assistance in Lebanon through to May.

• Emergencies Lebanon Syrian Arab Republic