Leaders pledge 250 million euros to help people in need
World leaders on Sunday pledged more than 250 million euros ($294 million) for disaster-struck Lebanon, conference host France said, with the emergency aid to be delivered “directly” to a population reeling from the deadly port blast in Beirut.
Fifteen government leaders including US President Donald Trump took part in the virtual conference hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and the UN, pledging solidarity with the Lebanese people and promising to muster “major resources” in the coming days and weeks.
A joint statement issued after the meeting in which representatives of nearly 30 countries as well as the EU and Arab League participated, did not mention a global amount.
But Macron’s office said the total figure of “emergency aid pledged or that can be mobilized quickly” amounts to 252.7 million euros, including 30 million euros from France.
Macron was the first world leader to visit the former French colony after Tuesday’s devastating explosion of a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate which killed more than 150 people, wounded some 6,000 and left an estimated 300,000 homeless.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told ZDF, a German public-service television broadcaster, that “more than 200 million euros of emergency aid have been collected,” including 20 million euros from Germany.
The joint statement from the world leaders and their representatives underscored concerns about Lebanese government corruption.
“The participants agreed that their assistance should be timely, sufficient and consistent with the needs of the Lebanese people, well-coordinated under the leadership of the United Nations, and directly delivered to the Lebanese population, with utmost efficiency and transparency,” it said.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Acting Administrator John Barsa also said in a conference call Sunday that American help, some $15 million announced so far, “is absolutely not going to the government.”
The donor nations urged Lebanon’s authorities to “fully commit themselves to timely measures and reforms” in order to unlock longer-term support for the country’s economic and financial recovery.
And they said assistance for “an impartial, credible and independent inquiry” into Tuesday’s explosion “is immediately needed and available, upon request of Lebanon.”
The UN said some $117 million will be needed for an emergency response over the next three months, for health services, emergency shelter, food distribution and programs to prevent further spread of COVID-19, among other interventions.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun, who was also in Sunday’s group call, thanked Macron for the initiative.
“Much is needed to rebuild what has been destroyed and to restore Beirut’s lustre,” the Lebanese presidency quoted him on Twitter as saying.
Lebanese residents donate blood for victims of Beirut’s blast at Kuwait Central Blood Bank in Kuwait City, Kuwait during a campaign organized by the Banking Association on Sunday. Photo: AFP
