Syrian Arab Republic: WFP Syria Country Brief, October 2019
In Numbers
4.3 m people assisted in October 2019
56,975 mt of food assistance delivered
US$ 1.8 m in cash-based transfers made
US$ 158 m six-month net funding requirement (November 2019 – April 2020
Operational Updates
• In October, WFP delivered general food assistance (GFA) for 4.3 million people across all 14 Syrian governorates. Of this, 24 percent was delivered through the cross-border operation from Turkey to areas not accessible from inside Syria, including Idlib and western rural Aleppo governorates.
• In October, a total of USD 1.8 million in cash-based transfers (CBT) was distributed to more than 58,900 beneficiaries across two activities: nutrition support to pregnant and lactating women and girls, and livelihood support.
• Large-scale military operations commenced across north-eastern Syria (Al-Hasakeh and Ar-Raqqa governorates) following the Turkish announcement of a military incursion into north-eastern Syria on 09 October.
• The fighting displaced more than 215,000 people in less than three weeks, and had forced some 12,000 refugees to flee across the border to northern Iraq by the end of October. By early November, some 115,500 of the internally displaced had returned to their places of origin as the security situation had stabilized in several areas, while some 99,600 people remained displaced.
• In response, WFP on 11 October commenced a large-scale emergency operation, dispatching emergency food assistance (including ready-to-eat rations (RTEs) and GFA for immediate distribution to the displaced and host communities. By the end of October, WFP had by reached more than 381,300 people in north-eastern Syria since the start of the response.
• While north-western Syria has seen a relative calm prevail in October since the announcement of a ceasefire on 31 August, sporadic airstrikes, shelling and ground clashes continued to be reported along the front lines across several areas of northwestern Syria.
• In October, WFP assisted more than one million people across north-western Syria with GFA delivered cross-border from Turkey, and provided nutrition assistance (through blanket supplementary feeding) to some 41,200 children.
