Record 9.3Mln People Food Insecure In Syria This Year - UN Deputy Humanitarian Chief

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th November, 2020) The United Nations estimates that the number of food-insecure people in Syria has grown by 1.4 million reaching a record high of 9.3 million in 2020, UN Assistant-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Relief Coordinator Ramesh Rajasingham said on Wednesday.

"Today, an estimated 9.3 million people in Syria are food insecure - that's 1.4 million more people than a year ago and more than at any other time during the crisis," Rajasingham said during a UN Security Council meeting.

Rajasingham pointed out that the number of severely food insecure Syrians stands at 1 million, twice as many as in 2019, and the United Nations expects this figure to increase.

The country's current economic crisis is a result of the decline in the value of the Syrian Pound on the informal market and historically high prices of essentials.

"The price of a national reference food basket increased by 247 percent since October last year, and is now higher than at any point since [World Food Program] started price monitoring in Syria in 2013," Rajasingham said.