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UN warns of rising number of Syrians suffering from acute food insecurity 

November 27, 2020 at 10:15 am

Ramesh Rajasingham (C), UN Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria crisis speaks during a press conference at a UN transhipment hub at Cilvegozu in Reyhanli near the Turkish-Syrian border in Hatay on 28 November 2016. [OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images]

The United Nations Acting Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Ramesh Rajasingham, warned on Wednesday that the number of Syrians suffering from severe food insecurity has doubled in 2020 compared to last year.

“Today an estimated 9.3 million people in Syria are food insecure – that’s 1.4 million more people than a year ago and more than at any other time during the crisis. About 1 million of them are severely food insecure – twice as many as last year – and we expect this number to increase,” Rajasingham said during a briefing to the UN Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Syria.

The official said as many as 6.7 million Syrians are internally displaced, noting that a third of them lack proper shelter.

He explained that since the ceasefire agreement in March, some 240,000 displaced people have returned to towns and villages in southern Idlib and western Aleppo, however, some of these places are now, again, coming under attack.

“At least eight civilians were reportedly killed, including children, and at least 15 others were injured as a result of shelling and airstrikes in the north-west this month. Over the past two months at least six humanitarian workers have been killed and six others injured in north-west Syria,” he added.

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