The situation increasingly desperate due to lack of resources and tensions generated in Beirut and Tripoli with armed clashes between Sunnis and Hezbollah Shiites.

Beirut ( AsiaNews / Agencies) - The number of Syrian war refugees registered in Lebanon has surpassed the figure of one million, equal to a quarter of the Lebanese population residing in the country. The figure was published by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees ( UNHCR) , describing it as "a devastating milestone worsened by rapidly depleting resources and a host community stretched to breaking point".

The UNHCR states that Lebanon has now become the country with "the highest per capita concentration of refugees worldwide".

The civil war in Syria, which has lasted more than three years, has caused millions of refugees to flee to Lebanon, but also Turkey, Iraq and Jordan. Lebanon is also being weakened by political instability and security problems: the Shiite militant party Hezbollah, an ally of President Bashar Assad, fights alongside the Syrian regular army against the Sunni rebels. Because of this there are clashes, attacks and violence between Sunnis and Shiites mainly in the suburbs of Beirut and Tripoli, in Lebanon.

 

• lebanon
• syria
• refugees
• UNHCR
• clashes
• hezbollah
• sunii
• shiite