U.N. Successfully Delivers Emergency Food to Syrian Town of Homs

The United Nations World Food Program has managed to reach thousands of people in the Syrian town of Homs this month, providing food aid for those displaced from their homes after months of fighting in the country. Cooperating with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and a local non-governmental organization called the El Bir Association for Charity, the WFP says 223,000 people currently living in public shelters, mosques and schools have been provided with food assistance. Currently the WFP says it needs to scale up its operation to reach 1.5 million people who now need food aid. Many people, they say, have been displaced twice and food prices in areas where fighting is taking place have almost doubled. There is a shortage of gas, with prices on the black market being some 400 percent higher than normal. The WFP says that while the price of wheat continues to rise, bread is still widely available with temporary shortfalls caused by a lack of fuel rather than flour shortages.