Former Minister Ashraf Rifi confirmed that “the financial aid, the state is allocating to needy families, is not enough to satisfy a family of 4 for more than 10 days. Some families only get it every two or three months, and the alternative is to provide monthly assistance worth at least $300 in cash to 550,000 families, 23 percent of whom live in extreme poverty.”
He added in a statement: “The cost of this aid is less than the looted “subsidy” and waste of electricity, which benefits smuggling and leads to more corruption,” stressing that “if the needy families are not provided with a minimum standard of living, they will inevitably prefer to risk their lives and the lives of their children rather than starve to death.”
Rifi concluded: “Save your people before it is too late to save yourselves.”