Derbas Raises Alarm over Suspension of U.N. Food Aid, Warns of Famine

Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas sounded the alarm on Friday after the United Nations decided to suspend food aid to 1.7 million refugees due to lack of funds, fearing that Lebanon would have to combat famine that includes thousands of refugees.

Derbas told An Nahar newspaper published on Friday that the Syrian refugee in Lebanon relies on the monthly $30 to cover food expenses.

He pointed out that the suspension puts Lebanon in face of famine that would include hundreds of thousands of refugees, noting that the country can not face such a burden.

Around 700,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon rely on the U.N. aid.

The suspension is particularly troublesome for Lebanon, which hosts more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees, or a quarter of the country's entire population.

There are no formal camps. Many of the refugees live in encampments, collective shelters and abandoned construction sites. Many make out a living hand-to-mouth on U.N. cash aid and food vouchers.

Derbas told An Nahar that the only solution would be by making a tour on countries that could aid Lebanon and save it from such a crisis, adding that Prime Minister Tammam Salam welcomes the proposal.

On Monday, the U.N. World Food Program suspended an electronic food voucher program serving refugees, saying donors failed to meet their commitments. The end of the program, which allows refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt to buy food in local shops, means that "many families will go hungry," the U.N. agency said in a statement.

The WFP said it needed $64 million (51 million euros) to fund its food voucher program for December alone and that "many donor commitments remain unfulfilled."

The move is a devastating blow to the conflict's most vulnerable refugees, particularly ahead of what promises to be a harsh winter. It also represents another manifestation of the world's failure to deal with the massive human catastrophe begun by Syria's civil war.

On Thursday, the European Union offered 180 million euros to help Lebanon and Jordan cope with a massive influx of refugees from Syria, where there is no end in sight to the civil war.

However, Derbas, who welcomed the move, told An Nahar that the $73 million euros will not resolve the crisis.

Lebanon has all but shut its frontiers to new refugees, allowing only humanitarian exceptions across, and the state is beyond its absorption capacities and urgently needs other countries to share its burden.