Coronavirus pandemic exacerbated food shortages across Syria

Coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated food shortages across Syria, where a catastrophic humanitarian situation already exists.

Nine years of war have cost Syria more than 530 billion dollars, vastly exceeding estimates by United Nations and Syrian experts two years ago. Forty percent of the country’s infrastructure has been destroyed, incurring losses of 65 billion dollars, while poverty reached 86 percent of Syria’s 22 million people. The fatalities from the conflict have reached 690,000, including 570,000 who were directly killed in the fighting. Thirteen million people have been forced to leave their homes for safety and 2.4 million children are out of school, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Among the myriad of other forms of insecurity that prevail across war-torn Syria, food insecurity levels have quickly broken new records. Food prices in Syria have risen to their highest levels since conflict erupted nine years ago, putting more than half the country’s population at risk of hunger. Now, it is reported that an estimated 9.3 million people across the country are being defined as food insecure, which is in stark contrast to the figure estimated a few months ago which stood at 7.9 million.

The cost of a representative basket of staple foods has doubled in just over six months, according to the UN’s food aid agency, as the value of Syria’s local currency has fallen by as much as two-thirds and Coronavirus restrictions disrupt internal supply chains. “We are seeing children going to bed hungry now, which we did not see before,” said Imran Riza, the UN’s top official based in Damascus, Ft reported. 80 percent of people across Syria were living below the poverty line before the pandemic took hold.

The region of Latakia scores as the very worst area for insufficient food consumption in all of Syria. The lack of data for Idlib, however, is peculiar, Trtworld reported. In recent times, the value of the Syrian pound has depreciated immensely. Before the civil war commenced back in March 2011, the Syrian pound traded at 50 pounds to the dollar. The figure now fluctuates around the 2,000 mark. Exchange rates on the Syrian pound vary slightly by region, with wide discrepancies between the official dollar exchange rates and those of the black-market.

Any currency crisis in the Syrian pound will reduce purchasing power across the country, with inflation particularly hitting imports for basic commodities, but the effects on the long-suffering people in the region of Idlib may prove ultimately more disastrous. No doubt today’s new figures pose a major challenge for plans to rebuild Syria, especially given the internal situation in the country and the global economic crises caused by the novel Coronavirus pandemic.