WFP Syria Country Brief, July 2019
In Numbers
3.9 m people assisted in July 2019
51,516 mt of food assistance delivered
US$ 1.9 m in cash-based transfers made
US$ 178.6 m six-month net funding requirement (August 2019 – January 2020)
Operational Updates
• In July, WFP delivered General Food Assistance (GFA) for 3.9 million people across all 14 Syrian governorates. Of this, 23 percent was delivered through the cross-border operation from Turkey to areas not accessible from inside Syria, including Idlib and western rural Aleppo governorates. WFP delivered food assistance to some 382,200 people in 66 locations across Syria, defined by the United Nations as hard-to-reach.
• The security situation in north-western Syria remained volatile over the month of July. Ongoing fighting and hostilities have had severe humanitarian impacts on the three million people who are living there, with reports of mass casualties, population displacement and widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure.
Reports suggest that more than 518,000 people have been displaced since 01 May, escaping hostilities in southern Idlib and northern Hama governorates towards safer areas in norther Idlib and Aleppo. WFP continues to provide emergency food assistance, reaching more than 256,400 people with ready-to-eat rations (RTEs) since 01 May. In addition, 933,000 people across the north-west were targeted with 1,900 kcal/day food rations under the GFA program in July.
• Should the situation in the north-west deteriorate further, WFP remains ready to respond with strategic stocks of RTEs, food rations as well as nutrition supplies pre-positioned inside Idlib governorate, in other hubs inside Syria, as well as in Turkey.
• WFP continues to provide monthly food assistance to populations across the north-eastern governorates of Syria. On 14 July, WFP was able to reach Al Baghouz town of rural Deir Ezzor governorate and distribute enough food rations to approximately 2,250 people who recently returned to the town. WFP, through its cooperating partner, is the first and only humanitarian agency to access the town of Al Baghouz, the last Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-held area before it was reclaimed by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in late March, since then the area remains inaccessible to humanitarian actors due to the ongoing explosive ordnance disposal and demining work. In Ar-Raqqa governorate, WFP is responding to the humanitarian needs of people returning to Ar-Raqqa city and is scaling up food assistance provided under the GFA program, to include an additional 10,000 people starting from August 2019.
• Through the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) cooperating partner, WFP continues to provide food assistance in the collective shelters of Homs governorate hosting evacuees from the Rukban settlement. Of the total 17,080 people who have left the settlement since 24 March, some 426 people remain in Homs collective shelters, with the rest having left to destinations of their choice (as of 23 July). WFP covers people leaving the shelters with an extra allocation of food through SARC.