Lebanon receives third batch of fuel aid from Qatar to help collapsing health sector

Lebanon has received a third batch of monthly financial assistance from Qatar, as the country and its health sector continue to suffer from the severe economic crisis.

According to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA), the assistance from the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) is used for the purchasing of fuel and oil required to run the country’s healthcare facilities every month.

The aid – of which the first two batches were received by Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health on 22 July – is reportedly part of a $50 million support package by QFFD, which is aimed to extend over nine months. Almost 1.5 million litres of diesel have already been distributed among health facilities, such as government hospitals and care homes.

Over the past few years, Lebanon has been facing a series of crises in the tumbling of its economy and its severe shortages of fuel and other essentials. The shortage of fuel, in particular, has resulted in power cuts and blackouts throughout the country, and has also contributed – along with the exodus of many doctors – to the deprivation of its health sector, with its imminent collapse being warned of.

Consequently, a number of countries in the region have sought to assist Lebanon with aid, supplies, electricity and fuel. Qatar and other Gulf States are some of those providing assistance, as well as Iraq, with its recent extension of fuel supplies to the crises-hit country for another year.

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