Japan allocated $16.5 million in support of Lebanon and the Lebanese people, Lebanon’s Ambassador to Japan Nidal Yehya has announced.
The Japanese government decided to increase its support for Lebanon after issuing its official supplementary budget, Yehya said in a statement on Monday.
The declared sum will go to several humanitarian organizations operating in Lebanon, including UNICEF, UNHCR, WFP, UNWOMEN, UNRWA, UNHABITAT, UNDP, ICRC, and others.
Japan had donated $6.4 million in response to the August-4th Beirut explosion. Individual donations to the Japanese Red Cross in the blast’s aftermath reached nearly half a million U.S. dollars.
Ambassador Yehya has been working on securing additional support for his country and is set to meet Japanese officials during February, according to state-run NNA.
Japan “expressed its sympathy for the catastrophe from the first moment of the Beirut port explosion,” Izumi Hiroto, Special Adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said in a statement in light of the new support package.
“It urgently provided in-kind assistance through the Japanese Red Cross and humanitarian organizations, and it is following what is happening in Lebanon,” he added, hoping Lebanon “regains its role quickly.”
The Lebanese government will reportedly be taxing aid provided to Beirut blast victims.
