UN cuts food aid budget for Syrian refugees

World Today

Representatives from the Syrian government and the opposition groups are likely to meet in Russia later this month to talk about ways out. The conflict between the two sides has left 1.5 million Syrians reliant on the United Nations for basics like food and water to support themselves and their families.

In all, 3 million people are registered with the United Nations Refugee Council. In December, the World Food Program announced that its money was drying up and that food aid would be cut in half. CCTV America’s Stephanie Freid reported from Jordan.

Despite inclement weather, it’s hectic at Jordan’s Zaatari Refugee Camp World Food Program supermarket. Inside the supermarket, it’s chaos.

Citing the biggest funding crisis since Syria’s civil war erupted four years ago, the U.N. is cutting Syrian refugee food allotments from about a dollar per person per day to just over fifty cents in January.

The problem: funding allocations are drying up. The U.N. says donors who were giving to Syrian refugees are now diverting contributions to alternate crises, like Africa’s Ebola epidemic.

The options are bitter on all fronts: Return to a battle-zone, resign oneself and one’s family to life in a tent, forego education and send children, instead, to the streets to earn money.

The hope is that a new fiscal year will usher in largesse.

The WFP reported it does not have the necessary funding to meet February food aid needs. With demand for food already outstripping what is available to be handed out, the question is how much worse will life become for Syria’s refugees in 2015 as a result of the aid budget cut.