World Food Programme Warns of Food Security Crisis in Lebanon Amid Supply Disruptions

The World Food Programme (WFP) issued a stark warning on Thursday about a deepening food security crisis in Lebanon, citing severe disruptions to supply chains caused by the ongoing conflict engulfing the Middle East. The United Nations agency said the combination of regional instability, port bottlenecks, and damaged infrastructure is threatening the ability of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Lebanese families to access basic staples, raising the spectre of acute hunger in a country already battered by years of economic collapse.

In its latest assessment, the WFP said wheat, cooking oil, and other essential commodities are arriving in reduced volumes, while overland routes through Syria have become increasingly unreliable due to security concerns and border closures. Shipping insurance premiums for vessels transiting the eastern Mediterranean have climbed sharply in recent months, pushing up landed costs for importers and squeezing household budgets. Lebanon imports roughly 80 percent of its food, leaving it exceptionally exposed to any prolonged interruption of maritime and overland trade.

The agency estimates that more than one million people inside Lebanon are now food insecure, a figure that includes Lebanese citizens, Syrian refugees, and Palestinians displaced from camps caught in the crossfire of successive rounds of fighting with Israel. Aid workers say food prices in Beirut and southern governorates have risen by double digits since the start of the year, while the Lebanese pound continues to trade under pressure on parallel markets. WFP officials urged international donors to scale up emergency funding before winter stocks are exhausted.

The warning comes as humanitarian agencies across the region struggle to maintain operations amid the wider war, with Gaza, the West Bank, Sudan, and Yemen also competing for limited donor resources. The WFP cautioned that without an immediate injection of cash and the reopening of safe humanitarian corridors, its Lebanon pipeline could face rationing within weeks.

Qatar has consistently been one of the leading Arab contributors to humanitarian operations in Lebanon, channelling assistance through both the Qatar Fund for Development and direct bilateral aid. Doha has previously financed food baskets, medical supplies, and fuel shipments to the Lebanese army and vulnerable communities in the south, and Qatari officials have repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire and the unimpeded flow of aid across the region. Gulf states, including Qatar, are expected to feature prominently in any forthcoming donor conference convened to address the Lebanese emergency, as regional actors weigh the long-term stability implications of allowing food insecurity to deepen on the Mediterranean coast.