US aid cuts have forced the UN children's agency UNICEF to suspend or scale back many programs in Lebanon, with more than half of children under the age of two experiencing severe food poverty in the country's east, an official said on Friday.
"We have been forced to suspend or cut back or drastically reduce many of our programs and that includes nutrition programs," UNICEF's deputy representative in Lebanon, Ettie Higgins, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Beirut.
More than double the number of children faced food shortages in the eastern Bekaa and Baalbek regions of the country compared to two years ago, according to a UNICEF report that studied the impact of 14 months of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel that began in October 2023.
"The assessment revealed a grim picture of children’s nutrition situation, particularly in the Baalbek and Bekaa governorates, which remained densely populated when they were repeatedly targeted by airstrikes", said Higgins.
Nearly 80% of families were in need of urgent support and 31 percent of households did not have enough drinking water, putting them at risk of disease, the report found.
UNICEF raised alarm about the impact of US aid cuts and a broader decline in global humanitarian funding.
"More than half a million children and their families (in Lebanon) risk losing critical cash support from UN agencies this month. These cuts would strip the most vulnerable of their last lifeline, leaving them unable to afford even the most basic necessities", Higgins added, according to Reuters.
Only 26% of UNICEF's 2025 Lebanon appeal is funded.
A ceasefire ended the conflict in Lebanon in November, which began when Hezbollah opened fire on Israel on October 8, 2023 in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.
President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on all foreign aid in January to carry out a review to ensure all the projects were aligned with his "America First" policy. On Wednesday his administration said it was cutting more than 90% of the US Agency for International Development's aid contracts.
