India gifting 2,000 tonnes of rice to Syria

India is gifting 2,000 metric tonnes of rice to Syria following a request from the Arab republic, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday.

The first consignment of 1,000 metric tonnes of rice was handed over by Indian ambassador to Syria Hifzur Rahman to Syrian Minister of Local Administration Hussain Makhlouf at Latakia Port on Thursday, the MEA said in a statement.

The ministry said the remaining 1000 metric tonnes of rice is expected to reach Syria on February 18.

"In response to a request from the government of the Syrian Arab Republic for emergency humanitarian assistance, the government of India is gifting 2000 MT of rice to strengthen food security in Syria," the MEA said.

India had earlier gifted 10 metric tonnes of medicines to Syria in July last year as part of COVID-19 assistance, the Hindu daily reported.

Syria's almost ten-year-old war has ravaged the economy and sent inflation soaring across the country.

A dire financial crisis in neighbouring Lebanon that has slowed dollar inflows and lockdowns to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic have further increased economic woes.

A record 12.4 million people in war-torn Syria are struggling to find enough food to eat, the UN food agency has said, in an increase it described as "alarming".

The figure means "60 percent of the Syrian population are now food insecure", the World Food Programme said, based on results of a nationwide assessment in late 2020.

It marks a sharp increase from 9.3 million people who were food insecure in May last year.

"More Syrians are slipping deeper into hunger, poverty and food insecurity than ever before," WFP spokeswoman Jessica Lawson told AFP.

"It is alarming that a basic meal is now beyond the reach of the majority of families."

In early 2021, food prices nationwide were 33 times higher than the five-year pre-war average, WFP says.

"The economic situation in Syria is putting immense pressure on families who have nothing left after years of conflict and many depend entirely on humanitarian assistance to survive," Lawson said.

The Syrian conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions more from their homes since starting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-regime protests.

(Agencies, Zaman Al Wasl)

Zaman Al Wasl