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WFP: Over 9.3 Syrians are food insecure

September 2, 2020 at 9:57 am

Syrians receive food aid packages in Syria on October 19, 2019 [Behçet Alkan/Anadolu Agency]

The World Food Program (WFP) yesterday warned that without urgent assistance over 2.2 million Syrians are at risk of slipping further into hunger and poverty.

The UN agency said on Twitter that in May “a record 9.3 million people in Syria were food insecure, as spiralling prices and the novel coronavirus pandemic compound the damage of the country’s nine-year war.”

It further revealed that it was afraid of a new record in the number of people suffering from food insecurity in Syria due to the severe economic crisis in the country, which caused a significant increase in the prices of foodstuffs.

According to the organisation, in April food prices increased 107 per cent when compared to the same period a year earlier, due to the economic crisis in neighbouring Lebanon and the outbreak of the novel coronavirus that exacerbated the situation.

The majority of Syrians live below the poverty line due to the successive economic crises that resulted from the Syrian civil war. The US and EU imposed severe sanctions on the war-torn further exacerbating the crisis.

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