DAMASCUS, Syria — On December 1, the UN World Food Program announced that it had to suspend aid to Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt because of lack of funds.
The WFP is worried that with harsher winter conditions coming, the suspension of aid will be even more harmful that it would have earlier in the year. Lack of aid could also negatively impact the host countries of these refugees, who have already taken on a huge burden.
The Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, was triggered in large part by protests against the government of Bashar al-Assad; the protests started small but grew in number and violence as government security forces turned to more forceful methods. Fighting moved to bigger cities as the protest gained momentum, including Aleppo and the capital, Damascus. As violence grew, the conflict became more fragmented; sectarian discord and extremism became more and more a part of the fight.
There are an estimated 10.8 million people, both within and fleeing Syria, who need humanitarian assistance. Over 4 million of these people live in areas that are incredibly hard to reach because of violence. An estimated 200,000 people have lost their lives in the war so far.
The conflict has created an enormous amount of refugees and internally displaced persons. The UN estimates that more than two million Syrians have fled their country, while upwards of four million have been displaced inside of Syria. The largest number of refugees is located in Lebanon, where almost one out of every three people is now Syrian. Lebanon’s government decided not to build refugee housing or set up camps, so fleeing Syrians have been forced to find shelter wherever they can. Refugees have also fled to Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey.
The aid to 1.7 million Syrian refugees comes in the form of vouchers that can be redeemed at local businesses for food. Muhannad Hadi, the Regional Emergency Coordinator at the WFP, says that “The people … whom we are feeding are totally dependent on the World Food Program to feed them, simply because they have no job opportunities. Their livelihoods have been destroyed.”
The WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian organization fighting hunger. It has been providing funding to Syria and Syrian refugees since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011.
Funding for aid comes through pledges. The WFP says that funding is low not because people did not pledge, but because those pledges were not fulfilled. The organization says that if sufficient funding levels are reached, aid will immediately resume. They are currently running an online campaign to get more donors.
The U.S. pledged an additional $135 million to aid Syrian refugees after the WFP originally released that it would have to scale back food programs in late November. Even with that additional amount, the WFP still has a $64 million gap between levels of funding needed and the levels of funding it has. Washington has given almost $3 billion in aid to Syria since the beginning of the conflict in 2011.
The WFP also warns that the aid it is giving to almost 4.5 million Syrians displaced inside Syria will run out in February.
– Caitlin Huber
Sources: PBS, WFP, New York Times, BBC
Photo: UNHCR