Emergency
Syria
- 12.9 million
- people are food insecure
- 1 million-plus
- people supported by WFP in 2024
- US$250 million
- needed in 2025 to assist 2.8 million people
In December 2024, armed opposition captured cities including Damascus and the Government was overthrown.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced, and up to 1.6 million people are at risk.
This is on top of the over half a million people who have been fleeing into the country from war-torn Lebanon.
Even before the latest events, more than half the population in Syria – 12.9 million people – were facing food insecurity, with 3 million people in the grip of severe hunger conditions.
The World Food Programme (WFP) remains committed to continuing life-saving support. Since the beginning of the influx from Lebanon and the escalation of conflict in Syria itself, WFP and partners have served tens of thousands of families across the country with ready-to-eat rations, as well as hot and fresh meals.
We are working to negotiate safe supply corridors to allow a rapid and substantial response when access allows.
In 2024 to date, WFP has supported more than 1 million people in Syria. We need US$250 million to serve 2.8 million in people in 2025.
What the World Food Programme is doing to respond to the Syria emergency
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Emergency response
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Since the situation in Syria escalated in late 2024, WFP and partners have served over 40,000 people across all of Syria – with ready-to-eat rations, as well as hot and fresh meals. Prior to this, an emergency response was activated within hours of the escalation of hostilities in Lebanon, to cope with an influx of people fleeing the war. WFP has reached 420,000 of these people with critical food assistance.
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Food assistance
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Due to funding shortfalls and higher food prices and operational costs, in 2023 WFP was forced to first reduce and then discontinue its large-scale General Food Assistance programme that had assisted 5.5 million people in Syria in 2023 alone. WFP launched a highly targeted emergency food assistance programme to reach 1 million severely food-insecure people. This is only a third of those severely food insecure in the country. School meals, nutrition and early-recovery work continue uninterrupted. However, dwindling humanitarian funding is limiting WFP’s ability to implement these activities at scale.
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Nutrition
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WFP’s nutrition programme helps children get the best possible start in life and supports pregnant and nursing mothers in fighting and preventing malnutrition. WFP currently supports over 300,000 pregnant and nursing women and girls, and children aged between 6 months and 2 years, to access nutrient-rich foods and improve their diets across all 14 governorates in Syria. This includes supporting women with value vouchers to diversify their diets, improve vitamin and mineral intake, and meet their nutritional needs.
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School meals
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WFP provides fortified snacks, fresh meals and food assistance, through electronic vouchers, to more than 460,000 students. This food is a key step in helping improve students’ health and nutrition, while motivating their families to keep sending them to school. The fresh school meals programme in Aleppo trains and employs vulnerable women to prepare the fresh meals, providing them with an income to support their families and become financially independent.
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Livelihoods
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To promote self-sufficient communities and reduce their reliance on urgent assistance, WFP helps families across Syria to restore their livelihoods, improve their food security and enhance their resilience to future shocks. Through vocational training and the rehabilitation of local infrastructure, such as irrigation channels and bakeries, Syrian families will have the opportunities to remain on their farms, grow their own food and improve their incomes.
How you can help
Your donation will make a difference. Support WFP’s work to save and change the lives of families across Syria. Together we can help Syrians to access emergency assistance and rebuild their lives.
Donate now