WFP: Half of Syrian population facing hunger
(14 Feb 2023) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: ASSOCIATED PRESS Brussels - 14 February 2023 1. Wide of World Food Programme regional director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe region Corinne Fleischer 2. SOUNDBITE (English) Corinne Fleischer, World Food Programme regional director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe region: "In Syria now, half of the population faces hunger, and that's the worst that we've seen since the beginning of the crisis in Syria. Even at the height of the war, we didn't have 12 million people food insecure. It's gone up over the last three years dramatically. So now you have this quake on top, where more people require assistance and those who were already vulnerable, you know, may have lost their houses and are directly impacted. So the situation in Syria is dramatic with that. It was very bad before, now it's dramatic and we need the support to be able to bring what is needed to the population of Syria." 3. Cutaway of hands 4. SOUNDBITE (English) Corinne Fleischer, World Food Programme regional director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe region: "Well, Syria is a catastrophe on top of a catastrophe. Twelve years of of conflict in Syria, and now that. Northwest Syria, you know, very much affected, some of the government controlled areas around Aleppo, Latakia and and Tartous very much affected. We also have started on day one to support with hot meals and with ready to eat meals. We have always emergency stocks inside northwest Syria to drop on in case something goes wrong. And so we have ready to eat meals in northwest Syria, as well as the rations that are ongoing every month for 1.4 million people." 5. Cutaway of interview 6. SOUNDBITE (English) Corinne Fleischer, World Food Programme regional director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe region: "In Turkey, we now have reached over 200,000 people through soup kitchens with the municipalities. And we also provide ready to eat meals to the refugee camps where we used to operate where now also Turkish citizens have temporary accommodation. And our plan in Turkey is to reach about 600,000 people with mainly Turkish citizens, but also the 45,000 refugees that we used to support. Supply chains are broken in Turkey right now so we provide in-kind food while before we use to give cash, but will move to vouchers again once this works." 7. Cutaway 8. SOUNDBITE (English) Corinne Fleischer, World Food Programme regional director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe region: "Natural disasters know no borders, humanitarian aid knows no borders. We need to reach to these people. We need to replenish our stocks, make these points open to us rapidly. It's not the time for politics now. It's the time to reach people, open the cross-border points and also open the cross line points from government controlled areas, Aleppo into northwest Syria, which we have tested over the last year, which works. They have to be more, they have to increase, more people can be also reached for the government controlled areas. We need access through all the axis we can now to make sure that we continue and augment our assistance there." 9. Wide of Fleischer STORYLINE: The United Nations is pleading with the Syrian authorities to speed up and expand access to remote quake-hit areas often in rebel-controlled territory to make sure food aid keeps flowing to people already facing hunger after a dozen years of war. "Even at the height of the war, we didn’t have 12 million people food insecure,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
