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Syrian refuges face starvation

UN cuts food aid to 1.7 million as funds dry up; war death toll passes 2, 00,000

Agencies
Aid workers fear a major humanitarian crisis for millions of Syrian refugees in the Middle East after funding gaps forced the United Nations to cut food assistance for 1.7 million people.
Meanwhile, Syria's civil war has killed more than 200,000 people in less than four years, a monitoring group, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP yesterday, adding that most were fighters from the two sides.
"We have documented the killing of 202,354 people since March 2011," Rami Abdel Rahman of the observatory said, adding that more than 130,000 of them were combatants.
“Of the total, 63,074 of the killed were civilians, including 10,377 children," said Abdel Rahman.
The UN's World Food Programme said Monday it needed $64 million (51 million euros) to fund its food voucher programme for December alone, and that "many donor commitments remain unfulfilled".
The announcement came as aid groups struggle to prepare millions of refugees for the impending winter, particularly those living in informal camps in cold, mountain-
ous areas.
"It's going to be a devastating impact. This couldn't come at a worse time," said Ron Redman, regional spokesman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR.
WFP's food vouchers were helping nearly two million refugees scattered in countries around the Middle East. But for most of the agency's recipients, December's top-up has not arrived.
Worst-hit in the region is Lebanon, where more than 800,000 ofthe 1.1 millionSyrian
refugees in the country were receiving WFP food voucher support.
In Jordan, some 450,000 refugees will get no money this month, though around 90,000 living in the UN's Zaatari and Azraq camps will continue to receive assistance.
In Turkey and Egypt, there are sufficient funds to provide aid until December 13 but not beyond, said WFP's Regional Emergency Coordinator Muhannad Hadi.
"It's going to be a nightmare for refugees," Hadi told AFP.
The announcement from WFP is the latest in a series of cuts made by agencies and NGOs assisting more than three million Syrian refugees.
They say funding pledges have not materialised, and "donor fatigue" is beginning to set in, nearly four years after the conflict in Syria began with antigovernment protests in March 2011.
Last year, UNHCR announced it was cutting some of its aid to more than a quarter of refugees in Lebanon, partly due to funding shortfalls. And WFP said in September that it was being forced to scale back the size of food rations for displaced and impoverished Syrians still in Syria.
In another development, a prominent Syrian opposition figure yesterday called for direct talks with President Bashar al-Assad's regime to try to end the country's raging civil war.
Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib, the former head of the opposition National Coalition, said a deal could see Assad remain in power for a limited time, despite previous demands for his immediate resignation.
"It is in the Syrian people's interest for us to sit down together once and for all, and to find a way to save the people from this pain and suffering," Khatib told AFP.