Lebanese government in ‘fantasy land’ amid crisis, U.N. envoy says

A woman wearing a face mask walks near closed shops in Chiyah, Lebanon January 26, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/Files

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese government officials have no sense of urgency and are not taking responsibility for an economic crisis that has "brutally impoverished" the population, an independent United Nations envoy told Reuters in an interview.

"I'm very struck by the fact that this is a state that, if it is not failed yet, is failing and that the needs of the population are still not addressed," Olivier De Schutter, U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said at the end of a two-week mission studying poverty in Lebanon.