AFP – 30 Sep 2014 – The number of Syrians in urgent need of food aid has shot up to more than six million, or more than one in four of the population, UN agencies said Tuesday.
The World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization said 6.3 million people are in urgent need of such aid, a rise of 50 percent from 2013, and 60 percent of war-torn Syria’s population of 23 million now live in poverty, three years into its conflict.
Production of crops has slumped by 40 percent and livestock numbers are down by a quarter from the levels of 2013, they said in a statement, while poultry has more than halved compared to pre-war levels.
The country’s bloody conflict since March 2011 has displaced or sent into exile more than nine million Syrians.