( Middle East Monitor ) – Over half of Syria’s population is going hungry as the war-torn and divided country continues to deal with the ongoing 12-year-long civil war and recent earthquakes, the World Food Programme (WFP) has announced.
The FAO explains, “A person is food insecure when they lack regular access to enough safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life.”
According to a report published by the WFP yesterday, around 12.1 million Syrians are suffering from food insecurity, while almost three million more are at risk of sliding into hunger.
That number is almost double the amount of food insecure people in Syria back in 2018, proving a sharp decline in the situation of much of Syria’s population.
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The Agency also noted the rise in malnutrition within the country, citing recent data, as showing that 28 per cent of children are being stunted in their growth and development, as a result.
The WFP Country Director in Syria, Kenn Crossley, stated that Syrians have endured “Bombardment, displacement, isolation, drought, economic meltdown and, now, earthquakes of staggering proportions. Syrians are remarkably resilient but there’s only so much that people can take.” He asked, “At what point does the world say ‘enough’?”
In a country where the average monthly wage is reported to currently cover only around one-quarter of a family’s food needs, the vast majority of Syrians have already been dealing with spiking food prices and shortages in fuel and wheat supplies over at least the past few years.
Currently supporting around 5.5 million people across Syria with assistance such as food distribution, nutrition programmes, school meals and cash provision, the WPF urged the donation of $450 million to continue those operations in the country throughout the rest of this year.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The definition of food insecurity has been added by Informed Comment.