U.N. to cut food aid to Syria

NEW YORK – A U.N. agency has announced plans to cut food aid to Syria, saying there are insufficient funds.

The U.N.’s World Food Program (WFP) said it will reduce aid to 2.5 million Syrians who rely on the organization for their daily subsistence.

A total of 5.5 million Syrians are dependent on aid.

Officials said that if aid to all 5.5 million people continued, the organization’s food stocks would be exhausted in October.

“An unprecedented funding crisis in Syria is forcing the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to cut assistance to 2.5 million of the 5.5 million people who rely on the agency for their basic food needs,” the organization said on Tuesday.

The decision to cut aid was made after exhausting all other options.

Some three million Syrians cannot go a week without food aid.

Kenn Crossley, the WFP representative in Syria, said aid would go to the most vulnerable populations.

“Instead of scaling up or even keeping pace with increasing needs, we’re facing the bleak scenario of taking assistance away from people, right when they need it the most,” he said.

Syria has been struggling for 12 years with a devastating war that has claimed the lives of more than half a million people and displaced millions more.

In February, the country was also hit by a series of earthquakes that worsened an already dire situation.

Even before the earthquake, 12.1 million Syrians were suffering from hunger.

Despite efforts to gradually reduce rations, rising fuel and food costs have made it impossible to continue supporting the same number of people.

The WFP had stressed that further cuts in rations are not possible.

Unfortunately, without the organization’s help, the Syrian people’s plight will only worsen.