WFP: Food insecurity in Syria reaches record levels

(MENAFN - Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) GENEVA, June 25 (KUNA) - The food insecurity in Syria reaches record levels since the beginning of the conflict, said World Food Program (WFP) spokesperson Tomson Phiri on Friday.An estimated 12.4 million Syrians are food insecure, representing nearly 60 percent of the population who does not know what to eat tomorrow, Phiri said in an online press conference from the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva.This increase means that approximately 4.5 million people have been added to the list of hungry people in just one year, he added.He noted that the continued rise in food prices, reaching 247 percent compared to last year has exhausted families'' savings after years of conflict, making them unable to afford basic meals, which pushed them further into poverty and debt to meet their needs.The World Food Program in Syria is currently providing life-saving support to some 1.35 million Syrians in the northwest through monthly food rations, which represents about 80 percent of all cross-border food aid.Furthermore, the spokesman said that the renewal of a UN resolution allowing the cross-border operation to continue in northwest Syria via Turkey is critical because millions of lives are at stake.About 2.4 million people in northwest Syria depend on cross-border aid to meet their basic needs, including food, medicine, shelter and other vital supplies, the majority of whom are women and children, he added. (end) ta.aa MENAFN25062021000071011013ID1102343203