Friday, the Lebanese capital, Beirut, witnessed long queues of vehicles stretch from its petrol stations down busy streets as the crisis-hit country faces severe fuel shortages.

Lebanon is in the grips of its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, and more than half of the population is now in poverty.

June 1, the World Bank warned that Lebanon's economic and financial crisis ranks among the ten most severe crises, and perhaps among the three worst since the mid-nineteenth century, while criticizing the government's failure to implement any rescue policy amid political paralysis.

Since the summer of 2019, Lebanon has been witnessing an accelerating economic collapse, the worst in the country's history, exacerbated by the horrific explosion of the Beirut Port Aug. 4 and coronavirus-related closures.

The World Bank said in its report that "this economic and financial crisis is classified among the ten most severe crises, and perhaps one of the three most severe crises, in the world since the middle of the nineteenth century."

Also Read: Lebanon's economic crisis among the most severe in the world since 1850