Lebanon PM Mikati warns of 'worsening' food insecurity amid economic crisis, Ukraine war

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned on Wednesday that food insecurity is only getting worse in his country.

At a global food security meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations' General Assembly in New York, Mikati said Lebanon was suffering from the consequences of Russia's war in Ukraine, as the country has a "heavy dependence" on Ukrainian and Russian wheat and fertilisers.

"The global disruption of food and fertiliser supply chains has directly affected my country," the Lebanese premier said.

1/4 لبّى الرئيس ميقاتي دعوة الرئيس الفرنسي ايمانويل ماكرون للمشاركة في لقاء حواري عن الامن الغذائي في العالم في مقر بعثة فرنسا في الامم المتحدة.
والقى الرئيس ميقاتي في المناسبة كلمة قال فيها: يهدد انعدام الأمن الغذائي الحاد ملايين الأشخاص في الشرق الأوسط وأفريقيا...#نجيب_ميقاتي pic.twitter.com/c4SPmprrBw

— رئاسة مجلس الوزراء 🇱🇧 (@grandserail) September 21, 2022

Russia's war on Ukraine, which began in February, only exacerbated the lack of access to food and other basics for Lebanese, and Mikati told meeting attendees that his country's deep economic crisis and the destruction of Beirut's grain silos after the devastating port blast of 2020 was leaving much of his country hungry.

Mikati earlier this month blamed some of the food poverty on Syrian refugees in the country.

"The most vulnerable groups of the Lebanese have begun to compete for limited services and resources with the Syrian refugees," he said.

Since late 2019, Lebanon has witnessed an economic crisis that the World Bank has said is among the worst the world has seen since the mid-nineteenth century.

More than three-quarters of the population lives in poverty.