On a recent visit to Libya, I met a family living in an improvised shelter in a displaced persons camp east of Tripoli. A clothesline, a pile of mattresses, a hot plate and the stench of body odor filled the room. The spread of the novel coronavirus will have a devastating effect on the Middle East’s communities of refugees and migrants. The demands for citizen buy-in are likely to grow in the Middle East in the pandemic’s aftermath. The pandemic’s most immediate and ruinous impact will be felt in the region’s active civil wars: Libya, Yemen and Syria.

Source: International New York Times April 06, 2020 09:00 UTC