WFP to cut food aid to Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 1, 2015 3:37PM

The World Food Programme (WFP) says it will halve the value of food vouchers for Syrian refugees in Lebanon in July and may halt such aid for those in Jordan the following month due to a funding crisis.

Muhannad Hadi, the WFP's regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, announced the decision in a press release on Wednesday.

"Just when we thought things couldn't get worse, we are forced yet again to make yet more cuts. Refugees were already struggling to cope with what little we could provide," Hadi said.

The WFP, the food assistance branch of the United Nations, said it will slash to USD 13.50 per person each month the value of food voucher for Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

It also warned that it will have to suspend all food assistance to 440,000 Syrians living outside camps in Jordan if it does not receive immediate funding by August.

The WFP is reportedly 81 percent underfunded and needs USD 139 million to keep helping Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq and Turkey until September.

Syria has been grappling with a foreign-sponsored crisis since March 2011. The violence fueled by Takfiri terrorist groups has so far left over 230,000 people dead, according to latest reports.

While 3.88 million Syrians have left their country since the beginning of the conflict, some 7.6 million people have also become internally displaced, according to the UN.

SSM/KA/GHN