UN starts distributing Saudi aid in Lebanon amid extreme poverty

The United Nations started distributing Saudi-donated aid in Lebanon on Thursday as an economic meltdown in the country has left millions of Lebanese in poverty.

"This aid is a contribution from the Saudi Embassy to the initiative of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center for a project to support food security, which targets more than 300,000 people in need in Lebanon," read a statement by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, the body handling the aid's distribution.

Saudi Arabia and France in late April committed $30 million to assist with Lebanon's food security and ailing healthcare sector as part of a joint development fund.

Saudi Arabia and Lebanon had strained relations in recent years, partly due to drug smuggling and comments by a Lebanese minister about Riyadh's war in Yemen.

Lebanon's economy is in tatters amid a crisis that first hit in 2019. The local currency has nosedived, inflation has soared, and approximately three-quarters of the population lives in poverty.

The World Bank said in June 2021 that the country's financial meltdown is among the worst seen anywhere since the middle of the 19th century.

The situation has led to bank deposits being frozen by banks with Lebanese taking extreme measures to retrieve their money.

On Thursday, a Lebanese man was hailed as a hero by many compatriots after he held staff at a bank hostage in a bid to access his own savings needed to treat an ailing relative.