The Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) called on the United Nations and its agencies to reverse the decision to reduce life-saving food assistance to those in need in Syria, warning of a humanitarian catastrophe in the near future.
Salwa Aksoy, member of the SOC’s political committee, said that the decision of the World Food Program to reduce the size of the food baskets began to take its toll on the displaced people in northwestern Syria, especially in the random IDP camps.
She added that the decreasing response to the needs of the displaced, who depend mainly on food assistance, portends a serious catastrophe.
Aksoy called on the international community and Arab states to contribute to the provision of life-saving aid to those in need in Syria, stressing that humanitarian aid is a right for the displaced people and refugees and cannot be subject to any calculations.
Director of the Emergency Response Coordinators Team in Syria, Muhammad Hallaj, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper that the worst decline in response took place in the random IDP camps. He pointed out that the response covered 110 camps out of 400, while 290 IDP camps did not benefit from the Ramadan programs at all.
Hallaj stressed that there is randomness and disorganization in the work of humanitarian organizations, citing the lack of reliable database of the IDP and their needs. He said that a household may obtain food baskets from several organizations, while another nearby household may not receive a single food basket.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
