WFP ‘concerned’ about ISIL seizure of UN food aid in Syria
The United Nations food agency has expressed grave concern over the ISIL Takfiri group’s seizure and manipulation of the food parcels it has distributed among the Syrian people.
The World Food Program (WFP) said in a statement on Monday that it was “extremely concerned” over the images that circulated on social media showing the aid, which had been distributed by the UN agency among Syrians, with ISIL logo.
“WFP condemns this manipulation of desperately needed food aid inside Syria,” Muhannad Hadi, said the agency’s emergency coordinator for the Syrian crisis, in the statement, calling on “all parties to the conflict to respect humanitarian principles and allow humanitarian workers including our partners to deliver food to the most vulnerable and hungry families.”
Images have recently surfaced on the social media showing Syrian people carrying food items distributed by the WFP with ISIL logo. The UN aid organization said the photos seem to have been taken in Dayr Hafr in the eastern rural part of Syria’s Aleppo Province.
The agency also said that it was not the first time that the Takfiri group is making such a move, adding, “WFP has learned that in September 2014, ISIS (ISIL) raided Syrian Red Crescent (SARC) warehouses in Dayr Hafr where undistributed food rations may have been stored.”
“All areas controlled by ISIS (ISIL) are security hot spots, which severely limits the ability to monitor food distributions,” it pointed out.
Syria has been grappling with a deadly crisis since March 2011. The violence fueled by Takfiri groups has reportedly claimed the lives of over 200,000 people so far. New figures show that over 76,000 people, including thousands of children, lost their lives in Syria last year alone.
The Takfiris control swathes of land in Syria and Iraq and have been carrying out horrific acts of violence such as public decapitations and crucifixions against all communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.
