UN readying US-funded salary support for Lebanese soldiers

The United Nations is finalising a plan to provide US-funded salary assistance to Lebanese soldiers hard hit by the country's financial crisis, the UN's representative in Lebanon told the country's Defence Minister on Monday, the Ministry said, Reuters reports

September 21, 2022 - 06:05

UN readying US-funded salary support for Lebanese soldiers

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Discontent has been brewing in the security forces as Lebanon's currency has lost more than 90 per cent of its value against the dollar, driving down most soldiers' wages to less than $100 per month. Many have taken extra jobs, and thousands have quit.

The military has been squeezed so badly by the country's three-year-old financial meltdown that its canteens stopped offering meat to troops in 2020 and began offering sightseeing tours in its helicopters to raise cash.

UN Special Coordinator, Joanna Wronecka, told caretaker Defence Minister, Maurice Slim, that US assistance for the salaries of soldiers "is in its final organisational stages and will be paid to soldiers via a United Nations programme".

Washington is the biggest foreign aid donor to Lebanon.

The US Embassy in Beirut did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Lebanese army spokesperson said they had no information about any such US support.

In January, the US State Department informed Congress of plans to re-route $67 million of military aid for Lebanon to include "livelihood support" for Lebanese soldiers, citing economic turmoil as well as social unrest.

Qatar, in June, pledged $60 million to support Lebanese soldiers, which a Lebanese Army source told Reuters would allow for payments of $100 per soldier through the end of the year.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said that roughly 5,000 soldiers had left the 80,000-strong army since the beginning of the crisis.

The Army command's decision to allow soldiers to take on second jobs has slowed the pace of desertions, the source said.

Lebanon's financial crisis has gutted public sector salaries and the amount paid to soldiers is barely enough to afford a basic subscription to a generator service that could offset the daily 22-hour power cuts plaguing the country.

Source: Middle East Monitor under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0