The World Food Program, running
short of cash, will halve the value of food vouchers given to
Syrian refugees in Lebanon this month and may cut all help for
440,000 Syrians in Jordan next month, the U.N. agency said on
Wednesday.
"Just when we thought things couldn't get worse, we are
forced yet again to make yet more cuts," Muhannad Hadi, WFP's
Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, Central
Asia and Eastern Europe, said in a statement.
"Refugees were
already struggling to cope with what little we could provide."
United Nations aid agencies said last week that a $4.5
billion appeal to tackle the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015 was
less than a quarter funded, putting millions of vulnerable
people at risk, and had already led to cuts in vital assistance.
The shortfall has meant 1.6 million refugees have had food
assistance cut this year and 750,000 children are not attending
school, the agencies and partner organizations said, calling on
countries to deliver on their pledges.
WFP said Syrian refugees in Lebanon would now get $13.50 to
spend on food in the month of July. The organization needs $139
million to keep helping almost 4 million Syrian refugees in
Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq and Turkey until September.
WFP said its global contributions rose by 27 percent in
2014, but the unprecedented number of humanitarian emergencies -
including Syria, Iraq, South Sudan and the West African
countries hit by Ebola - meant its needs were rising even
faster, and continued to outpace available funding.
Syria's conflict is now in its fifth year and has killed
more than 220,000 people and displaced around half of the
population. U.N. aid agencies have described it as one of the
worst refugee crises since World War Two.
The United Nations predicts there will be 4.27 million
Syrian refugees in the region by the end of 2015. U.N. funds
also aim to help more than 20 million local people in
communities hosting refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq
and Egypt.
REUTERS