UN records highest risk of famine in Syria in 12 years

The World Food Programme (WFP) has announced that the threat of starvation in Syria has reached its highest level in the past 12 years of conflict in the country. According to the organisation, 2.9 million people in Syria are at risk of starvation and another 12 million people have no stable sources of food.

The Gross Domestic Product report noted that Syria has the sixth-highest food insecure population in the world and that food prices in the country have risen around 12 times in the past three years.

Child malnutrition rates are also high. The UN estimates that 90 per cent of Syria's population lives in poverty as the economy has been hit by armed conflict, drought, cholera, the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial crisis in neighbouring Lebanon.