The announcement earlier this week by the World Food Program that it would halt aid to Syria from January revived concerns among those displaced from the country’s poverty-stricken northwest after more than 12 years of civil war..

“With the aid cut off, the suffering will increase exponentially,” Ali Farhat, director of the Maram camp in the city of Atme, told AFP. “Some say to me: ‘We will die of hunger'”.

In a statement issued on Monday, RAM said it “regrets” having to “announce the end of its food aid to Syria in January 2024, due to lack of sufficient resources”.

This UN agency will continue to “support families in urgent need and affected by natural disasters across the country, with smaller and more targeted emergency interventions.”

“Funding” is a “problem that the program faces everywhere in the world,” PAM, whose activities can be reduced or increased depending on needs and available resources, told AFP.

In September, the agency had warned that the lack of moneyforcing it to cut food rations, could push another 24 million people to the brink of starvation.

In July, 45% of aid recipients in Syria had to be excluded, according to RAM.

The IDPs of the Maram camp cannot hide their concern.

Three million people live in the areas controlled by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (al-Qaeda’s former branch in Syria) in Idlib province, almost half of whom are displaced and scattered in hundreds of overcrowded camps. They are plagued by hunger, poverty and very poor sanitation and are mainly dependent on food, medical and logistical assistance provided by international organizations.

RAM’s decision will have a major impact on camps in northwestern Syria, such as that of Maram in the city of Atme, where residents are queuing in front of a truck to receive the last food rations of 2023.

“Stopping aid will lead to the death of people who were living on it because they have no money to feed themselves,” said 40-year-old Ahmed ‘Adla, a father of four who has been displaced for 11 years.

“I hope they come to see how we spend the winter. We can’t even have our children in the heat. They make fun of us,” said Khaled al-Masri, 45, who has been displaced for 13 years with 11 members of his family.

The war in Syria, sparked by a crackdown on pro-democracy protests, has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more.