As foreign reserves are drained, a bitter and worrying winter lies ahead for Lebanon

It is hard to see how the poorest will be able to eat and keep themselves warm, writes Bel Trew

A Lebanese woman next to her empty refrigerator in her apartment in Tripoli (AFP via Getty Images)

As we hurtle into autumn, families across Lebanon are bracing for an unfathomably bleak winter, where many will starve and struggle to warm themselves.

Battered by financial collapse, an uncontrolled outbreak of Covid-19, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in modern history, and sectarian violence, the tiny Mediterranean nation has barely dragged itself forward this year.  More than half the country now lives below the poverty line, a rate which is rising. In Beirut, many are still living in the bombed-out shells of their homes.