More than 50 percent of children under two years of age suffer severe food poverty in several areas of the south of the country
The agency calls the international community to gather 633 million euros aimed at offering vital assistance to 2.4 million people throughout the country
MADRID, 28 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United Nations Childhood Fund (UNICEF) has alerted this Friday that the mental health of Lebanon’s children has been “deteriorated” by the “devastating war”, which has forced a large number of minors to “flee from their homes” and has caused serious damage to “facilities that provided essential services.”
The devastating war forced children to flee their homes, damaged facilities that provided essential services and inflicted physical and emotional injuries to children throughout the country.
“War has had a terrible impact on children, affecting almost all aspects of their lives: their health, their education and, ultimately, their future,” said Akhil Iyer, representative of UNICEF in Lebanon. “Lebanon boys and girls need urgent support to cure, rebuild their lives and survive the lasting effects of this crisis,” he warned.
Thus it has pointed out that the negative effects of the attacks have had an impact on the lives of Lebanese children even “after the high fire reached between Israel and (the Milicia party) Hezbollah entered into force in November 2024”.
The agency, which has called for the international community to gather almost 633 million euros and offer vital assistance to 2.4 million people throughout the country, estimates that most minors suffer anxiety or are depressed because of the bombings recorded in the south of the country, which represents an increase with respect to the data collected before the war, in 2023.
He has also warned in a statement that there are indications that point to an “alarming” situation of child malnutrition in highly populated areas of the governorates of Baalbeck-Hermel and the Valley of the Scholarship, which were a repeated target of air attacks.
More than 50 percent of children under two years of age suffer severe food poverty in these areas, where UNICEF estimates that the population faces severe food poverty. Almost half of those under 18 (49 percent) of the Becá Valley and more than a third (34 percent) of those of Baalbeck-Hermel had not eaten or only had one meal the day before the completion of the survey, as UNICEF has stressed. Throughout the country, the rate was 30 percent.
In this regard, he recalled that the poor diet and insufficient frequency of meals “slow down the growth and cognitive development of children and increase the risk of suffering potentially deadly malnutrition.”
Consequences for education
The conflict has also aggravated the already difficult situation in which education was in Lebanon, which had already left more than 500,000 children without schooling after years of economic crisis, teachers’ strikes and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
After the bombings, the schools were destroyed or severely damaged and hundreds more were used as shelters for some of the 1.3 million internal displaced people because of the conflict, as indicated by the UN data.
Even with the high fire, school assistance is still low. More than 25 percent of children still did not go to school last January, compared to 65 percent during the war.
“Many boys and girls cannot attend school due to economic obstacles. Two thirds of families with children without schooling cite the high costs of school rates, transport and materials, a figure that has doubled since 2023,” the text collects.
UNICEF has also lamented that 45 percent of households have been forced to cut health expenses and 30 percent in education to be able to meet the most basic needs. To this is added that around 31 percent of households lack sufficient drinking water and that 33 percent do not have access to the medications that their children need.
“These data provide undeniable evidence of the critical need to act now. Lebanon must receive the help you need to restore infrastructure and vital services, ensuring that children have a future to aspire to,” Iyer said.
“At this time so fragile and decisive in the history of Lebanon, we cannot allow ourselves to wait. We ask all the parties to respect the terms of high fire and work with the international community to maintain peace and guarantee a better future for children, and ask the new government to put as priority the rights and needs of children in the reform and recovery agenda,” he said.