UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th June, 2020) Well over nine million people in Syria are experiencing severe food shortages and the number of affected people is rapidly growing, the World Food Program (WFP) said in a news release on Friday.
"Syrians today face an unprecedented hunger crisis as the prices of basic foods reach levels unseen even at the height of the nine-year conflict and millions of people are pushed deeper into poverty," the release said.
The World Food Program pointed out that some 9.3 million Syrians are food insecure - an increase of 1.4 million in the last six months alone.
"Food prices are 20 times higher than their pre-crisis levels, with the price of a basic food basket that cost 4,000 Syrian Pounds pre-conflict now 76,000 Syrian Pounds. Families have been forced to adopt desperate measures from cutting meals and reducing portions to selling assets and going deeper into debt," the release said.
The World Food Program has reported that it provides food assistance to 4.8 million vulnerable people in Syria. The UN agency has also said that it urgently requires $200 million to continue providing food assistance in Syria until the end of the year.
