(UTV | COLOMBO) – Syria faces the risk of mass starvation or another mass exodus unless more aid money is made available, the head of the UN World Food Programme has said.
Ahead of a donor conference in Brussels on Tuesday, David Beasley told the BBC a million Syrians were severely food insecure and some were already dying.
The war-torn country’s currency has collapsed and food prices have soared.
In desperation, many Syrians might have no choice but to try to flee to Europe as they did in 2015, Mr Beasley said.
More than 380,000 people have been killed and 13.2 million others – half the pre-war population – have been displaced inside and outside Syria since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011.
Some 6.6 million refugees are scattered throughout the world, the vast majority of them in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt, where the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has wrought havoc on economies.
