WFP: More Than Half of All Syrians Going Hungry

More than 50 percent of Syrians suffer from food insecurity. (WFP)
More than 50 percent of Syrians suffer from food insecurity. (WFP)
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WFP: More Than Half of All Syrians Going Hungry

More than 50 percent of Syrians suffer from food insecurity. (WFP)
More than 50 percent of Syrians suffer from food insecurity. (WFP)

An average monthly wage in Syria currently covers about a quarter of a family’s food needs, the UN World Food Program said in a statement on Tuesday, highlighting an urgent need for increased humanitarian assistance as the country grapples with the devastating impact of recent earthquakes and a 12-year-long conflict.

Some 12.1 million people, more than 50 percent of the population, are currently food insecure and a further 2.9 million are at risk of sliding into hunger.

Meanwhile, recent data show that malnutrition is on the rise, with stunting and maternal malnutrition rates reaching levels never seen before.

“Bombardment, displacement, isolation, drought, economic meltdown, and now earthquakes of staggering proportions. Syrians are remarkably resilient but there’s only so much that people can take,” said Kenn Crossley, WFP Country Director in Syria. “At what point does the world say enough?”

The ''February 6'' earthquakes came as food prices in Syria were already soaring. The selection of standard food items that WFP uses to track food inflation has almost doubled in price in 12 months and is 13 times more expensive than three years ago. The upwards trajectory is expected to continue.

The recent earthquakes have highlighted the urgent need for increased humanitarian assistance in Syria, not only for people hit by the earthquakes, but also for those who were already grappling with sky-rocketing food prices, a fuel crisis, and consecutive climate shocks.

Stunting rates among children have reached 28 percent in some parts of the country and maternal malnutrition prevalence 25 percent in north-east Syria.

A country that used to be self-sufficient in food production now ranks among the six countries with the highest food insecurity in the world, with heavy dependency on food imports. Damaged infrastructure, high cost of fuel, and drought-like conditions have slashed Syria’s wheat production by 75 percent.

WFP provides food assistance for 5.5 million people across the country.

But a funding crunch for WFP in Syria threatens to curtail the assistance, exactly when people need it most. WFP urgently requires a minimum of $450 million to keep up assistance for over 5.5 million people across Syria for the rest of 2023. This includes $150 million to support 800,000 people affected by the earthquake for six months.

“‘The world has now forgotten us’. That’s what we hear from many Syrians,” said Corinne Fleischer, Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe.

“We need the funds to continue to provide food for millions of families -- until Syrians can feed themselves again.”



Tens of Thousands Go Hungry in Sudan after Trump Aid Freeze

(FILES) A woman collects food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organisation to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
(FILES) A woman collects food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organisation to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
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Tens of Thousands Go Hungry in Sudan after Trump Aid Freeze

(FILES) A woman collects food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organisation to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
(FILES) A woman collects food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organisation to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

For the first time in nearly two years of war, soup kitchens in famine-stricken Sudan are being forced to turn people away, with US President Donald Trump's aid freeze gutting the life-saving schemes.

"People will die because of these decisions," said a Sudanese fundraising volunteer, who has been scrambling to find money to feed tens of thousands of people in the capital Khartoum.

"We have 40 kitchens across the country feeding between 30,000 to 35,000 people every day," another Sudanese volunteer told AFP, saying all of them had closed after Trump announced the freezing of foreign assistance and the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

"Women and children are being turned away and we can't promise them when we can feed them again," she said, requesting anonymity for fear that speaking publicly could jeopardize her work.

In much of Sudan, community-run soup kitchens are the only thing preventing mass starvation and many of them rely on US funding.

"The impact of the decision to withdraw funding in this abrupt manner has life-ending consequences," Javid Abdelmoneim, medical team leader at Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, told AFP.

"This is yet another disaster for people in Sudan, already suffering the consequences of violence, hunger, a collapse of the healthcare system and a woeful international humanitarian response," he added.

Shortly after his inauguration last month, Trump froze US foreign aid and announced the dismantling of USAID.

His administration then issued waivers for "life-saving humanitarian assistance", but there have so far been no signs of this taking effect in Sudan and aid workers said their efforts were already crippled.

In what the United Nations has decried as a global "state of confusion", agencies on the ground in Sudan have been forced to halt essential food, shelter and health operations.

"All official communications have gone dark," another Sudanese aid coordinator told AFP, after USAID workers were put on leave this week.

The kitchens that have survived "are stretching resources and sharing as much as they can", he said.

"But there's just not enough to go around."

As one of the few independent organizations still standing in Sudan, MSF said it had been fielding requests from local responders to quickly step in.

However, "MSF can't fill the gap left by the US funding withdrawal," Abdelmoneim said.

The United States was the largest single donor to Sudan last year, contributing $800 million or around 46 percent of funds to the UN's response plan.

The UN estimates it currently has less than 6 percent of the humanitarian funding needed for Sudan in 2025.

Over 8 million people are on the brink of famine in Sudan, according to the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.

Famine is expected to spread to at least five more areas of Sudan by May, before the upcoming rainy season is likely to make access to food all the more difficult across the country.