(8 March 2016) Joining the efforts of the international community to support Lebanon in the pacification and stabilization process of the region and the country is the goal towards which Italy is working, partly with a €5 million donation in favor of the Lebanese government, partly with the launch of the project “Rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Nahr el-Bared Camp and areas affected by the conflict in northern Lebanon.” The area was destroyed during the 2006 conflict between the Lebanese army and jihadists, and Italy had pledged to restore it during the Vienna Conference on 23 June 2008. The closing ceremony of the project, organized by the Embassy of Italy in Beirut, the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and the Council for development and Reconstruction of Beirut, will be held tomorrow March 9 at the Monroe Hotel in Beirut in the presence of the Italian ambassador to Lebanon, Massimo Marotti. The first phase was completed in November 2012, costing about €2.5 million euro thanks to the Italian NGO ICU, and allowed for the rehabilitation of 611 residential and commercial units located in the area. The second phase provided additional financial support and technical assistance to restore additional 360 housing units, selected from those not covered by the first phase of intervention and those located in areas where it had been previously impossible to operate due to safety concerns. In December 2015, thanks to the consortium of Italian NGOs AVSI-RC and other partners involved in the project, the last units were delivered to their homeowners who benefited from the Italian intervention. On that occasion, an Italian Development Cooperation delegation was able to visit some of the completed housing units, where families have returned to live. (Sip)
