Hunger is the latest effect of Al Assad’s war

A United Nations food scheme has run out of money, forcing it to slash food packages to Syrian refugees

Millions of Syrian refugees are dependent on food aid from the United Nations. Photo: Umit Bektas / Reuters

Millions of Syrians already live in desperate conditions, with winter approaching and no prospect of returning home. But their plight has worsened with the news that the United Nations has had to slash its food aid scheme. The UN World Food Programme said it had simply run out of money, forcing it to cut 40 per cent from the food packages distributed to those displaced by the conflict.

None of this is a surprise. The United Nations has been warning for more than a year that the scale and prolonged duration of the crisis in Syria has created the single biggest humanitarian disaster the organisation has ever faced. It launched a fund-raising drive to meet its expanded obligations, seeking more than $5 billion (Dh18bn), but has received far less than it sought. The human impact of this shortfall will be felt by the 4.2 million Syrian refugees displaced internally and another two million in neighbouring countries who rely on UN food handouts. Each family will now get less than two-thirds of the food packages they had been receiving.

Children always suffer disproportionately from conflict. Even if not at risk from fighting or being wholly dependent on others for food and shelter, a substantial proportion of an entire generation is missing out on a proper education and preventative health measures such as vaccinations. Their plight – whether they are Syrian, Gazan, Yemeni, Libyan or from other countries across the Middle East and North Africa region blighted by conflict – is the subject of a two-day United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees conference that began in Sharjah yesterday. It is organised in partnership with The Big Heart campaign for the Syrian refugee children, run by Sheikha Jawaher Al Qasimi, the wife of the ruler of Sharjah.

The UAE, along with other Gulf countries, have been prominent in helping, although this country's stance has been to deliver assistance directly rather than via the UN. An example is the Mrajeeb Al Fhood camp in Jordan, which is solely funded by the UAE as part of Dh683 million donated to help Syrian refugees since 2012. Last month, the UAE Ministry of International Cooperation and Development announced it would provide an additional Dh113 million to the World Food Programme, allowing the UN to feed almost 880,000 people. More money will follow, but other countries also have to come forward and help make up the UN's shortfall to alleviate the misery of those innocents caught in the middle of Syria's civil war.