WFP admits failure in aid supply to Syria refugees in Turkey
The UN food agency says it has failed to provide as many as nine Syrian refugees camps in Turkey with aid due to lack of funds.
"Unfortunately, in February, we were forced to ask the Turkish government to take over assistance in nine camps where we could not continue providing aid because we lack funds," the World Food Program (WFP) spokeswoman, Elisabeth Byrs, said in the Swiss city of Geneva on Friday.
She said the WFP is lacking a total sum of USD 71 million in the year 2015 for its aid program in Turkey, adding that the agency needs as much as USD 9 million each month to provide food items for the refugees on the Turkish soil.
"Getting more funding is really essential," she said.
The WFP had supplied aid to some 220,000 Syrian refugees before February, but in the last month the number of refugees receiving assistance plunged to 154,000, she added.
Turkey is home to some 1.7 million refugees who have fled the ongoing crisis in Syria.
The UN official further called on the international community and donors to step up efforts in providing the agency with funds it needs.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday hit out at the UN for what he called the international body’s failure to end the ongoing crisis in Syria.
He said Ankara expects the international community to do more to settle the Syria crisis, warning that hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees may seek shelter in Turkey if the clashes continue in the volatile city of Aleppo.
Turkey has time and time again been blamed for backing ISIL Takfiri terrorists in Syria, who control parts of the Arab country.
The Ankara government has been one of the staunch supporters of the ISIL Takfiri militants fighting against the Syrian government.
Last month, Turkey and the US signed a deal to train and arm what the two sides called moderate militants in Syria.
Syria has been grappling with a deadly crisis since March 2011. The violence fueled by Takfiri groups has so far claimed the lives of over 210,000 people, according to reports.
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