Geneva AP
The World Food Program said Tuesday it is unable to help an estimated 1 million Syrians who are going hungry, blaming a lack of security in the war-stricken country.
This month, the agency aims to help 1.5 million of the 2.5 million Syrians whom the Syrian Arab Red Crescent says need food aid, spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said. The poor security and the agency's inability to use the Syrian port of Tartous means that a large number of people in some of the country's hardest-hit areas will not get help, she said. "Our main partner, the Red Crescent, is overstretched and has no more capacity to expand further," Byrs said.
She also said the agency has temporarily pulled its staff out of its offices in Tartous and the cities of Homs, Aleppo, and Qamisly due to the rising dangers in those areas. But in December, the WFP was able to enter for the first time in many months some hard-to-reach areas near the Turkish border, she said.
