UN food agency says will slash Syria aid by about half

Trucks from the World Food Programme drive through the Syrian city of Idlib. (AFP/File)

• It said it took the decision “after exhausting all other options“
• The WFP said that if it kept providing aid to 5.5 million people, it would “run out of food completely by October“

ROME: The UN food agency said Tuesday it will slash aid to Syrians in need of basic food supplies by around half due to a lack of funding.
“An unprecedented funding crisis in Syria is forcing the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to cut assistance to 2.5 million of the 5.5 million people who rely on the agency for their basic food needs,” the organization said.
It said it took the decision “after exhausting all other options” and planned to stretch its “extremely limited” resources by prioritising “three million Syrians who are unable to make it from one week to the next without food assistance.”
The WFP said that if it kept providing aid to 5.5 million people, it would “run out of food completely by October.”
“Instead of scaling up or even keeping pace with increasing needs, we’re facing the bleak scenario of taking assistance away from people, right when they need it the most,” WFP representative in Syria Kenn Crossley said in the statement.
It comes as the EU prepares to host the seventh Brussels Conference on “Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region” on Wednesday.