Hunger, violence threaten Syrians

Hunger is a growing threat to Syrians living in regions hit by their country's civil war and children are now dying of malnutrition, according to aid groups and activists.

Cases of malnutrition in Syria are still rare but they were virtually  unheard of before the revolt, followed by a brutal government crackdown, against President Bashar al-Assad broke out in March 2011.

Syrian activists have filmed the bodies of several skeletal children who doctors said died of malnutrition. They say the most recent victim was one-year-old Rana Obeid, who died Tuesday. Footage showed her with her ribs protruding and belly swollen.

Doctors said she was the sixth child to die from malnutrition in the Damascus suburb of Mouadamiya.

Such cases are difficult for international aid groups, which have little access to areas hit by violence, to confirm. But groups like Save the Children, which released a report on hunger Tuesday, say such incidents point to a potential crisis.

"You have rampant inflation of food prices, lack of access to food and a huge problem reaching people in need. These are all the ingredients that lead to a food security crisis. There isn't strong data, but there is a strong reason to worry," George Graham, program manager for Latin America and the Middle East at Save the Children, said.

"The likelihood of a crisis seems high and imminent."

Mouadamiya is controlled by rebels but under blockade by Assad's forces. The United Nations says aid workers have been unable to visit the town for over a year due to fighting.

"Food is only dozens of meters away and our children are dying because of a checkpoint or a sniper," said Omar, a doctor in the town.

Save the Children cited reports suggesting a quarter of Syrian families go as much as a week at a time without being able to buy food. Food is often available, but prices have doubled in the last year and poverty is rising.

"It was very dangerous for me and my children — we had no food and were always hungry. When this hunger had continued for two months and we were very weak, that is when we decided to flee. We realized we would starve if we stayed in Syria," Roula, a Syrian mother, told Save the Children.

According to the World Food Program (WFP), about 4.25 million people need food aid. It targets 3 million people for aid a month. But Graham said other aid groups assess that at least 10 million people face problems getting food.

"We have a situation where millions of people are not being given any help at all," he said.

U.N. officials say they are struggling to find ways to enter combat zones. Laure Chadraoui, a WFP spokeswoman in Beirut, said aid workers had resorted to air-lifting food to some areas.

In Syrian refugee camps abroad, food and medicine shortages endanger the health of millions.

Mariam Alloush, a Syrian refugee whose home was bombed and husband killed, struggles to feed her family. They "are surviving on crumbs," Al Jazeera's Rawyah Ragah said, reporting from a makeshift refugee camp in Turkey where the family found temporary shelter in squalid conditions as official camps are full. Alloush's four-year-old son is suffering from a fever, but a lack of medical care obstructs his recovery.

In a related development, the WFP said it would drop hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees from its food aid program in Lebanon as it struggles to keep pace with a growing refugee population.

More than 750,000 refugees have poured into neighboring Lebanon since the conflict began. Nearly 15,000 Syrians register as refugees with the U.N. in Lebanon each week, pushing aid agencies to scramble for funds to assist them.

Lynne Miller, heads of the WFP in Lebanon, said about 30 percent of Syrian refugees in Lebanon would no longer receive food vouchers from the program as it tries to allocate scarce resources to those who most need help.

She said the decision was made after an assessment determined that those refugees can meet their needs through other avenues and do not require food aid from WFP.

Under the current system, Syrian refugees receive $27 worth of food vouchers from the WFP every month which they can redeem for food at shops.

The change will deal a blow to many refugees struggling to make ends meet in Lebanon, according to Human Rights Watch. Lebanon, unlike Jordan and Turkey, has no formal camps to provide a safety net.

Following the WFP's announcement, the organization renewed its call on governments worldwide to pressure the Syrian government and opposition groups to enhance access and security for humanitarian-aid workers across the Syrian border and within the country.

The U.N. says it has received only 27 percent of the aid it requested from international donors last year to help Syrian refugees across the Middle East.

Al Jazeera and Reuters