The international conference held to support Lebanon on the first anniversary of the August 4 explosion raised $370 million, France announced on Wednesday.
With that, the event exceeded its initial target of $350 million that French President Emmanuel Macron had been aiming to reach.
In a statement, Macron’s office declared that $370 million in new pledges for emergency humanitarian aid and that there were promises of “substantial aid in kind.”
Macron had pledged to send over $118 million’s worth of aid, a close amount to U.S. President Joe Biden’s pledge of $100 million.
Although the aid will be sent directly to the Lebanese people, at least in France’s case, the attendees did press Lebanon’s ruling class to step up their response to the aftermath of the Beirut Port Explosion, whose effects still haunt Lebanon to this day.
“I think that Lebanese leaders … owe their people the truth and transparency,” President Macron told the conference.
In a similar statement, President Biden stressed that “no amount of outside assistance will ever be enough if Lebanon’s leaders do not commit to do the hard but necessary work of reforming the economy and combating corruption.”