UN: Lebanese children’s future at stake amid economic crisis

By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — The U.N. children’s agency says Lebanon’s severe economic crisis has left some children hungry and without good medical care, and forced others to drop out of school to help their families. UNICEF’s report Tuesday comes as the Lebanese pound traded at 23,500 to the dollar — close to lows briefly reached in the summer — further eroding the purchasing power of families in the small nation. The agency says nearly three-quarters of Lebanon’s 6 million residents, including a million Syrian refugees, now live in poverty. Lebanon’s two-year economic meltdown is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement