UN to send food assistance to Syria's Aleppo
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E-mail Xinhua, August 2, 2012
The United Nations food agency will send urgent food assistance to Aleppo residents amidst heavy fighting in the largest city of Syria, a UN spokesman told reporters here on Wednesday.
"The World Food Program (WFP) will distribute food to 28,000 people in Aleppo over the next few days, following reports of shortages of food, gas and electricity during weeks of violence in Syria's largest city," said Martin Nesirky, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at a daily briefing.
WFP provided food assistance to over half a million Syrians in July, but was prevented from reaching more by fighting in many parts of the country, said Nesirky.
According to the spokesman, in addition to distributing food to people in the country, WFP has also launched an operation to provide food assistance to Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq through food vouchers, which aims to assist 67,000 people this month and is to reach 120,000 by December.
"WFP's operation in Syria is 62 million dollars short of its needs, which are calculated at 103 million dollars," he added.
Aleppo has been the center of intense combat between the Syrian government and opposition forces over recent days. Meanwhile, there have been reports of an escalation in violence in many towns and villages, as well as Damascus.
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