Fund crunch forces UN to cut Syria food aid

[Jefferson23]

Size of food parcels cut by a fifth as donor countries fail to fulfill pledges of donations to aid agencies.

Last updated: 08 Apr 2014 05:45

The United Nations has been forced to cut the size of food parcels for those left hungry by Syria's civil war by a fifth because of a shortage of funds from donors, a senior official has said.

Nevertheless, the United Nations' World Food Programme managed to get food to a record 4.1m people inside Syria last month, just short of its target of 4.2m, WFP deputy executive director Amir Abdulla told a news conference on Monday.

As the humanitarian crisis within Syria intensifies, its neighbours are also groaning under the strain of an exodus of refugees that now totals around 3m, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said.


"We know that this tragedy, together with the tragedy of the people displaced inside the country, 6.5m, now shows that almost half of the Syrian population is displaced."

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/04/fund-crunch-forces-un-cut-syria-food-aid-20144851120732617.html