Syria faces crisis and Gaza heads toward famine, World Food Program official says

UNITED NATIONS — The deputy executive director of the UN World Food Program has made a whirlwind visit hotspots in the Middle East and Sudan to assess serious humanitarian situations and increasing demand for food of millions of people trapped or fleeing conflict.

But Carl Skau said in an interview with The Associated Press this week that the Rome-based agency has been forced to make major cuts to the number of people it can help because of a lack of funding.

The WFP is working to diversify its fundingincluding targeting the private sector, but Skau said: “It will undoubtedly be a difficult time, with widening gaps.”

“The needs continue to increase and funding is not even stable at the levels we currently have,” he said.

Syria is facing the consequences of a 13-year civil war and the recent wave of arrivals War between Israel and Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanonand unexpectedly rebels the deposition of former leader Bashar AssadSka said.

Even before Lebanon and the end of the The more than fifty-year rule of the Assad familyhe said that 3 million people were acutely food insecure and very hungry. But the agency only provided food aid to 2 million people due to budget cuts.

Now, Skau said, “it’s a triple crisis, and the needs are going to be enormous.”

While the situation in Aleppo, the largest city in Syriais “fairly calm and orderly”, he said there is still uncertainty in the capital Damascus, where markets have been disrupted, currency values ​​have fallen, food prices are rising and transport is broken.

This means a greater humanitarian response in the short term. In the next phase, the UN will focus on Syria’s recovery and ultimately its reconstruction, Skau said.

Skau says the The humanitarian situation in northern Gaza is dire but he is just as concerned about southern Gaza, “if not even more so,” because of the million or so people on the beach north of Khan Younis as winter approaches.

In the northern areas, where the UN says 65,000 Palestinians still live and no aid has arrived for more than two months, Skau said Israeli military operationsLawlessness and the receipt of food aid have prevented access to those in need.

He said some humanitarian convoys have reached the wider northern area, including Gaza City, where the UN says there are about 300,000 people.

In the south, Skau says, WFP helped about 1.2 million people in June, July, August and September. In October and November, only a third of that number – 400,000 Palestinians – received aid. At the same time, imports of essential commercial goods were very small compared to the summer months, Skau said.

He blamed the limited number of access points and the inability to move food to WFP warehouses, as well as the “total breakdown of civil and public order.”

Ska said International famine experts have reported this three weeks ago that if nothing changed, there would be famine in Gaza, “and I think that’s where we’re going.”

The needs are overwhelming: 25 million people in war-torn Sudan face acute food insecurity and famine has been declared in the vast Zam Zam camp for the displaced in West Darfur.

Skau cited progress made over the past month in obtaining authorization to deliver aid across conflict lines and the border with Chad. And with the roads drying up at the end of the rainy season, the WFP can deliver ‘much more food’.

One convoy reached the Zam Zam camp and two others were en route but were held up due to fighting over the past 10 days in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, Skau said.

It is the only capital in Darfur still in the hands of Sudanese forces. The others are being held by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Sudan became embroiled in conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between military and paramilitary leaders erupted in the capital Khartoum and spread to other regions, including West Darfur.

The WFP reached about 2.6 million people this month, Skau said, emphasizing that the international community should have done more to address the Sudan crisis “and must do more in the future.”