Syria records highest hunger rate in 12-year conflict – WFP
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Friday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned that war, collapsing currency and crippling economy caused hunger rate in Syria to hit the highest record in 12 years.
Following 12 years of war, “12 million people do not know where their next meal is coming from,” which means that about 2.9 million are at risk of “sliding into hunger,” the WFP said in a news release.
The WFP added that sooner 70% may not be able to have “food on the table for their families.”
David Beasley, the United Nations WFP Executive Director who is paying a visit to Damascus this week, said, “If we don’t address this humanitarian crisis in Syria, things are going to get worse than we can possibly imagine.”
Beasley noted that this situation may result in another wave of “mass migration like the one that swept across Europe in 2015.”
He urged the international community to come together to “avert the looming catastrophe…bring peace and stability to the Syrian people.”
After years of war, Syria is crippling under impacts of a stifling economic crisis and collapsing Syrian currency against foreign ones that cause price of basics to soar, almost complete power outage, and scarcity of fuel, pulling majority population to below poverty line.