World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The top United Nations refugee official told the Security Council on Wednesday that the number of registered Syrians who had fled their homeland for safety elsewhere in the region could surpass one million by next month — much sooner than expected — and that the Syrian conflict threatens to overwhelm the international response. (..) “We are facing a moment of truth in Syria,” the official, António Guterres, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, told the Council. “The humanitarian situation is dramatic beyond description. The refugee crisis is accelerating at a staggering pace.” The other speakers were Valerie Amos, under secretary general and emergency relief coordinator, and Zainab Hawa Bangura, a former health minister of Sierra Leone, appointed by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last year as the United Nations’ special representative on sexual violence in conflict.

A growing exodus to Jordan is leading to overcrowding in refugee facilities, a UN official warned on Thursday, calling for an “ambitious” plan to establish several emergency camps. “We are averaging 2,500 to 3,000 persons per night and we have to find accommodation for them,” said Andrew Harper, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) representative in Jordan. (..) Plans to open the country’s second camp and a third 50,000-capacity camp some 20 kilometres west of Azraq, have been undermined by an ongoing funding gap, with the UN reportedly receiving less than 20 per cent of a record $1.5 billion pledged by the international community last month.

Jordan is preparing to open the country’s third Syrian camp, officials said on Wednesday, in order to meet a refugee influx that has reached “historic” levels. According to Anmar Hmoud, Jordanian government spokesman for Syrian refugee affairs, authorities have begun preparations for a new Syrian refugee camp in order to meet a refugee flow that has reached an average of 2,500 persons per day. (..) The funding gap has lead to repeated delays in the opening of the country’s second camp at Mreijeeb — with officials now hoping to open the 30,000-capacity facility next month.

Jordan must not be left alone to deal with the Syrian refugees, an EU fact-finding mission said on Wednesday. (..) The delegation also called on the Arab states to share some of the burden Jordan is carrying, and learn from the EU’s experience in that regard. The EU, for its part, is expected to show solidarity and come to the aid of the Syrian refugees, instead of leaving it to Syria’s neighbouring countries, the MEPs said.

“The nutrition situation of Syrian refugees in Jordan, while not yet serious, could deteriorate with this protracted humanitarian emergency and many of these refugees are exhausting their savings, if indeed they came with any,” said Jonathan Campbell, the World Food Programme’s emergency coordinator for the Syria Refugee Operation in Jordan.

There are many children like Zeina who fled the fighting in Syria and poured into neighbouring countries. WFP covers the food needs of refugees in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey with food distributions and innovative food vouchers. In October, WFP provided food assistance to almost 160,000 refugees in all four countries.

The United Nations says the huge influx of Syrian refugees crossing into neighboring Jordan during the past week was larger than anticipated and left its agencies, already suffering from a funding shortfall, reeling under the influx. U.N. officials are crying out for more funding as they rush to build showers, toilets and a school for the newcomers. (..) International donors have pledged less than 3 percent to a $1 billion U.N. appeal made last month to aid the more than 670,000 Syrian refugees estimated to have fled to surrounding countries during the 22-month uprising to topple President Bashar Assad. The U.N. says it hopes a donor conference for Syrian refugees Wednesday in Kuwait will rectify the dire funding situation.

The UN says there has been a huge leap in the numbers of Syrian refugees arriving in Jordan, putting a considerable strain on resources. A UN official told the BBC that up to 3,000 were arriving every day and at least 50,000 were waiting to cross. UNHCR says there are now more than 670,000 registered Syrian refugees and people awaiting registration in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt.

Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and, to a lesser degree, Iraq, all of them neighbors of the calamity unfolding in Syria, which is bleeding lives at the rate of more than 100 a day and refugees in excess of 100,000 a month. (..) Most can expect little in the way of assistance because the international community has yet to respond to the reality that the most violent and intractable of the Arab Spring revolts also is spawning a humanitarian catastrophe. A U.N. appeal last month for a record $1.5 billion to aid needy Syrians inside and outside the country has drawn few pledges. (..) Refugees in Lebanon are left largely to fend for themselves, finding whatever shelter they can and relying on the generosity of local communities.

Jordan has witnessed a spike in Syrian refugees as temperatures have begun to rise and last week’s snow melts, relief officials said on Monday, reporting over 1,300 new arrivals in a two-day period. (..) The sudden influx has placed a growing strain on Jordan’s sole Syrian refugee camp the Zaatari camp outside Mafraq, where some 500 tents and several facilities were damaged by last week’s heavy rain and strong winds. In a bid to accommodate the rising number of new arrivals, officials are planning to open a second camp, a tented facility on the outskirts of the northern city of Zarqa, by the end of the month.