Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism – World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley concluded a three-day visit to Syria, warning that more people there are in the grips of hunger than at any time during their country’s decade-long conflict.
Blaming a deadly combination fighting, climate change, COVID-19 and rising food and fuel costs, he said, “Mothers are telling me that with the upcoming winter they are caught between a rock and a hard place”.
“They either feed their children, and let them freeze, or keep them warm and let them go hungry. They cannot afford both fuel and food”, added the WFP chief spelling out that the deadly mix is “pushing people beyond their limits”.
During his travels, Mr. Beasley spoke to mothers in nutrition and food distribution centres who elaborated on the hard choices they are forced to make to survive.
A mother of four in Aleppo described her daily struggles.
“We are tired, worn out and now hungry too as the economic situation takes its toll”, she said.
She explained that she has not been able to get any fresh food, dairy or eggs for her children for the last four months and had to make difficult decisions, “like deciding which of my children should eat on the basis of who is most fragile and sick or who will slip into severe malnutrition if not fed today”.
Syria breaks food insecurity record
Some 12.4 million people, or almost 60 per cent of the population, are now food insecure and do not know where their next meal will come from – a 57 per cent increase since 2019 and the highest number ever recorded in the history of Syria, said the UN agency.
