WFP warns 2.2m more Syrians risk hunger

Around 2.2 million Syrians risk joining the fast swelling ranks of the hungry and poor in war-torn Syria, the World Food Programme warned yesterday. "Without urgent help 2.2 million more could slip further into hunger and poverty," WFP said in a statement on Twitter. The UN agency said in May that a record 9.3 million people in Syria were food insecure, as spiralling prices and the novel coronavirus pandemic compound the damage of the country's nine-year war. That figure had leapt from 7.9 million six months earlier. Most of Syria's population lives in poverty, according to the United Nations, and food prices have doubled over the past year.