U.S. announces additional $12M in humanitarian aid to Syria

Aug 3 2012

"The United States announced Thursday it would hike its humanitarian aid to Syria, adding another $12 million to provide food, water, medicine and other necessities for battered and displaced people" affected by violence in the Syrian conflict, the Los Angeles Times blog "World Now" reports. "The increase approved by the Obama administration brings American humanitarian assistance in Syria to more than $76 million, including $27.5 million to the World Food Programme [WFP], roughly $18 million for the United Nations refugee agency and the rest split among other U.N. funds and non-profit groups," the blog writes (Alpert, 8/2).

The WFP and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Thursday said up to three million Syrians would need food and agricultural assistance over the next year, Reuters reports (8/2). About 1.5 million of those people are in urgent need of assistance over the next three to six months, a joint press release says (8/2). IRIN reports that "Syria's agricultural sector has lost $1.8 billion this year because of the Syrian crisis," according to a joint assessment (.pdf) by the U.N. agencies and the Syrian government (8/2). A State Department fact sheet on U.S. humanitarian aid to Syria and neighboring countries is available online (8/2).