WFP Providing Life-Saving Food To People Returning To Eastern Aleppo City

Published January 26, 2017

DAMASCUS – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has stepped up support to tens of thousands of displaced Syrians returning home to the ruins of eastern Aleppo city, providing families with hot meals, ready-to-eat canned food and staple food items such as rice, beans, vegetable oil and lentils.

Much of the infrastructure in eastern Aleppo city has been heavily damaged, leaving people returning to their homes in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. Last November, about 157,000 people fled eastern Aleppo city as military operations devastated large parts of the city.

  • WFP supplied nine public kitchens with 20 metric tons of food, which is being used to prepare hot meals twice a day for 40,000 people in eastern Aleppo city. WFP is also providing ready-to-eat food for 45,000 returnees and displaced people in eastern Aleppo city. Additionally, over 10,000 people sheltering in western Aleppo city have received food rations.
  • WFP provides 45 metric tons of wheat flour daily to partners operating eight bakeries in Aleppo city. The bakeries use the flour to produce and distribute bread  to families, including people in the formerly besieged areas of the eastern part of Aleppo city such as Mshateyah, Tareeq Al Bab and Al Bayyadah.
  • Throughout 2016, WFP assisted four million people per month across 13 of the 14 governorates in Syria. Access to besieged and hard-to-reach areas generally improved last year, allowing WFP to reach almost 1.5 million people in these areas through cross-border and cross-line convoys, as well as through air operations.
  • However, over the past several weeks, access to besieged and hard-to-reach areas has worsened due to security restrictions. Notably, only two inter-agency convoys have taken place in the last two months, one to Khan Al-Sheh in December and another to Moadamiya in January.
  • Additionally, due to recent heavy fighting in Deir Ezzor city, WFP suspended airdrop operations to the city from 15 January. WFP is closely monitoring the situation and will resume airdrops when  security allows.
  • WFP continues to call on the Syrian government and all parties involved in the conflict to allow immediate, safe and secure access to all areas across Syria, particularly those that remain besieged by warring parties.

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WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 80 countries.

For more information please contact:
Abeer Etefa, WFP/Cairo, Tel. +202 2528 1730 ext. 2600, Mob. +20 1066634352.
Marwa Awad, WFP/Damascus, Mob. +963 958 882 900
Jane Howard, WFP/Rome, Tel. +39 06 65132321, Mob. +39 346 7600521
Bettina Luescher, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41 22 917 8564, Mob. +41-79-842-8057
Gerald Bourke, WFP/New York, Tel. +1-646-5566909, Mob. +1-646 525 9982