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| WFP Regional Director Daly Belgasmi while addressing press in Geneva [PHOTO: UNifeed] |
Geneva: The World Food Programme (WFP) has distributed food to 1.5
million Syrians last month, the UN agency said today (23rd October).
WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, Central Asia and
Eastern Europe, Daly Belgasmi told a news conference in Geneva insecurity in the region meant access remained a problem.
He described the situation as changing and volatile and
said, "It's not a situation where we can say, we have access or we don't
have access."
Belgasmi said the cost and availability of fuel would be a
problem with the advent of winter.
Efforts would be needed to ensure its availability for
cooking and heating.
The official hoped the proposed ceasefire for this weekend's
Eid celebrations would take place, since it could allow the pre-positioning of
food supplies in areas that are hard to reach.
WFP has reached about 120,000 people in neighbouring
countries and hopes to increase food delivery to 460,000 people by June next
year.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) today said that Lebanon has
become the third country in the region to see its population of registered
Syrian refugees and people waiting for registration exceed the 100,000 mark.
According to UNHCR, Lebanon had more than 101,000 Syrian refugees in the
country as of Monday. Refugee populations in Turkey and Jordan were already
above that level. Across the region, the number has climbed to more than 358,000. -UNifeed