Un Agency Warns That Lack Of Funds Could Halt Aid To Lebanon As 60,000 Cross The Border
With 60,000 displaced Lebanese already having crossed the border back to their homes since Monday, the United Nations
World Food Programme (<"http://www.wfp.org/english/?ModuleID=137=2216">WFP) today appealed for more funds, warning that emergency aid to the almost one million people displaced by
the recent fighting could stop unless more international assistance is forthcoming.
WFP, which is responsible for moving humanitarian relief supplies into and within Lebanon for all UN agencies and their
partners, as well as providing inter-agency telecommunications support, has so far received only $19.2 million of the
$39.5 million it requires for its three-month operation, leaving a shortfall of 47 per cent.
“We are now seeing hundreds of thousands of people returning to the south of the country and many more crossing the
border from Syria. With the extent of the damage, many of them will find they have nothing left when they get home,”
said Thomas Keusters, WFP head of logistics in Lebanon. “They will be relying on relief assistance ῦor many weeks to
come.
Around 200,000 people have returned to their home areas in Lebanon in the past three days, the Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (<"http://ochaonline.un.org/webpage.asp?Page=873=en">OCHA) said today, reporting official Lebanese Government figures, adding however that less than half of the UN’s
$165 million flash appeal for emergency aid has been committed so far.
But despite the shortfall, WFP and other aid organisations have massively stepped up operations in Lebanon since the
cessation of hostilities by both sides in the conflict came into effect on Monday, allowing access south of the Litani
river for the first time in more than a week.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR><"http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/news/opendoc.htm?tbl=NEWS=44e33db62">UNHCR) and WFP, along with volunteers from the Aga Khan Foundation and the Syrian Red Crescent Society, are working
around-the-clock at the main border crossings, handing out food aid packages to the thousands of returnees to help them
through their first days back in Lebanon, after weeks spent in public buildings in Syria.
“It is reassuring that in spite of all the suffering they have been through and the uncertainty of what awaits them back
home, they are filled with hope and excitement, keen to start rebuilding their lives,” said Pippa Bradford, WFP’s
Representative in Syria.
Two convoys carrying emergency aid also left Beirut this morning, one headed to the southern port city of Tyre and the
other, sent by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees UNRWA>(<"http://www.un.org/unrwa/news/index.html">UNRWA), to Wavel Camp in Baalbek carrying food for some 5,000 residents, OCHA said in a press release.
“A UN-chartered ship also left Beirut for Tyre this morning, carrying food, medical supplies, drinking water and fuel.
Part of that fuel will be used to supply hospitals. Meanwhile, a plane chartered by the UN refugee agency arrived in
Beirut from Amman today with tents, mattresses and other relief supplies,” UN spokesman StephaneᾠDujarric told reporters
in New York.
Also on the humanitarian front, the UN Children’s Fund (<"http://www.unicef.org/media/media_35351.html">UNICEF) and other partners are distributing tens of thousands of
leaflets and warning people through radio and television broadcasts of the danger of unexploded munitions left after the
fighting, as these represent perhaps the most immediate danger awaiting the Lebanese retuῲnees.
It is estimated that 10 per cent of munitions fired during the 34-day conflict have not been detonated and many may lie
dormant in schools, hospitals and houses, with the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) already reporting several incidents,
including the death of a child in Tyre, caused by unexploded munitions.
“Children are more vulnerable to the danger because they are attracted to things and pick them up, they know less and
they are more compact than adults and closer to the ground – so any explosion impacts them more greatly,” said UNICEF’s
Director of Emergency Programmes, Dan Toole, speaking from New York.
According to the UN Interim Mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL><"http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/index.html">UNIFIL) and the National De-mining Office, approximately 2,600 pieces of ordnance – artillery rounds, missiles, and bombs –
were fired every day into Lebanon during the conflict and around 8,000 to 9,000 pieces could remain unexploded.
Ends