Resident Coordinator’s Speech at the Launch of the "Flash Appeal for Lebanon"

Esteemed Prime Minister, 

Ministers,

Distinguished representatives of Member States, 

Members of the donor community,

UN colleagues, and partners from international and national humanitarian organizations,

Thank you for joining us here today, whether in person or online.

What we feared has now tragically become reality – and on a scale beyond our worst imaginings. 

We have gone from 110,000 displaced over the past 11 months, to over 1 million affected within the past week. Nearly 160,000 people are in shelters, with that number set to increase as the counting continues. 

Others seeking refuge in supposedly safer areas have been killed in the Chouf, Keserwan, Saida, Bekaa, and elsewhere. Beirut, devastated by the port explosion just four years ago, now faces new threats and no longer feels safe. 

Over 1,000 people have died in airstrikes in the past ten days alone, including UN and humanitarian colleagues, with well over 8,000 injuries recorded in the past year, ( 6000 in the past two weeks?)  and these numbers continue to rise. This is nothing short of catastrophic. The people of Lebanon are justifiably terrified. 

Sadly, despite tireless efforts by many parties, the end of the escalation is not yet in sight. 

Esteemed members of the international community,

After five years of an unprecedented multifaceted set of crises, after over a decade of the highest per capita refugee presence globally, Lebanon must now grapple with the soaring needs of their own citizens who have been displaced. 

The goodwill of the Lebanese people has been remarkable; many have set aside political differences or personal challenges to help one another. Despite their own fragile situation, the efforts of the Lebanese to provide shelter and support embody the true spirit of this country’s people.

However, strikes, in addition to the human losses and the fear they have wrought across the country, are further straining the fragile economy, and destroying or weakening essential infrastructure like water facilities, healthcare centers, agricultural land, and homes, adding to the hardship.

For the past year, the government and humanitarian community have prepared for the worst case scenario, and our coordination has only been improving over time.  The continued support of international donors has been invaluable. However, in the current context, we do still face serious funding shortages which hinder our ability to respond to the current scale of displacement and destruction, and to the primary needs of people.

Despite limited resources, our joint efforts have been relentless. The health sector, though having lost many staff, continues to respond to overwhelming needs. The education sector has opened the doors of schools across the country to take in the displaced – though we must not fail to recognize the massive implications this will have for hundreds of thousands of children and their schooling. Social Affairs and DRM staff and volunteers working at national, governorate and municipal levels have worked tirelessly to coordinate the response and provide services in hundreds of shelters, and to the rapidly growing number of people in hard-to-reach areas.

Over the weekend, I moved between shelters, government offices, and the Serail, meeting officials, government employees and volunteers working around the clock to address needs.

Today, in coordination with Prime Minister Mikati, we are launching a $426 million Lebanon Flash Appeal to address the urgent needs of 1 million displaced and affected individuals.

Our aim is to build on and reinforce the strong cooperation and collaboration already in place, working closely with the government and our partner ministries at both national and subnational levels.

In this context, inclusion is at the core of our response—everyone in need must be supported, accommodated, protected, and fed. While we know that around 100,000 people, the majority Syrians, have fled to Syria, we also recognize that many others feel they cannot leave. It is our responsibility to ensure that no one is left unassisted or unprotected.

We thank the international community for the substantial assistance to various crises in the past, many still continuing, but also urge you to scale up funding to meet the growing demands on the ground, as further funding shortages will only exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe within and beyond Lebanon's borders. 

And, while meeting existing humanitarian needs, we need to stop new ones from emerging. We therefore call on all parties to respect international humanitarian law, cease attacks on civilian infrastructure, and halt violence against civilians.

I commend you Excellency  Prime Minister for his swift actions, including his recent trip to New York and his persistent calls for a ceasefire and a political-diplomatic solution. His leadership has been vital in these challenging times. 

The United Nations remains in Lebanon and will continue to act, alongside government and non-government partners alike, to respond to the emerging crisis. 

We continue to implore nations to urgently leverage their influence to avoid further conflagration of the conflict. The parties must lay down their arms and prioritize diplomacy. 

They must also recommit to the full implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701 and immediately return to a cessation of hostilities to restore stability. Further bloodshed must be avoided.

Thank you.