The United Nations World Food Programme will cut food stipends to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in Jordan by a third, partly due to having to accommodate aid requirements stemming from the war in Ukraine, the group tells The National.
The cuts, due to take effect next month, are the first tangible sign of international focus on Ukraine undermining aid to Syrian victims of a civil war, with the Middle East increasingly confined to the shadows as the war in Europe takes centre stage.
The WFP said in response to written questions from The National that Ukraine and other "competing requirements", as well as surging global food and fuel prices, had "made it difficult for WFP to raise the required resources to maintain the level of assistance".
The refugees receive other supplies of aid outside of the WFP, but the organisation is nonetheless predicting a shortfall.
The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre announced on Friday it would be donating over $3 million in medical aid to Syrian refugees in Jordan and last month, the UAE's Emirates Red Crescent announced a package of aid to the Mrajeeb Al Fhood camp, which hosts Syrian refugees.
Refugees started flooding into Jordan and other neighbouring countries in 2011, when a peaceful revolt against five decades of Assad family rule erupted in March. The uprising was militarised towards the end of that year in response to violent suppression by the regime that killed thousands.
The WFP said the cuts would affect "353,000 vulnerable refugees" in Jordan living outside two refugee camps. They are mostly Syrian but also include some Iraqis, Yemenis and Sudanese.
The stipends given to refugee families living in the two camps in Jordan will continue at the same level of $32 per month "while funding is available", the organisation said.
The camps near the Syrian border, Zaatari and Azraq, house 17 per cent of the 667,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan. The rest of the Syrian refugees in the kingdom live mostly in urban centres in the middle of Jordan and in the north.
The WFP sent text messages to refugees in Jordan this month saying “food assistance will be reduced to all beneficiaries outside the camps and that is because of a shortage of financial resources”.
The organisation says it needs a record $22.2 billion for this year to help 152 million people it describes as "food insecure", compared with the $4.8bn it has obtained, with the US being the largest contributor.
"Never has WFP’s funding gap been so wide," its statement said. "Needs outstrip resources, WFP has been forced to take from the hungry to feed the starving."
In Jordan, about 500,000 Syrian refugees are on the WFP stipends. Those outside the camps receiving $32 a month in food stipends will experience a drop to $21. Other refugees, deemed not as needy, will receive $14 a month, compared with $21 before the cut.
Diplomats say the humanitarian focus on Ukraine could further undermine the overall aid to Syrian refugees.
“The picture will become clearer by the end of this year when it will be known how much of the Syrian aid pledges has been realised,” a European diplomat said.
One refugee who lives in Zarqa, Jordan’s second city, said the reduction is making him think more seriously of moving with his wife and three children to Azraq, the smaller of the two refugee camps.
He might receive more money for food in Azraq and save on rent, he said, adding he has been contemplating the move for a while as food prices soar and the stipends he and his wife receive lost value.
“The problem is that I don’t know [whether] we will be allowed into the camp,” he said.
Another diplomat in contact with UN agencies in Jordan said the Zaatari camp was full and investment in Azraq wad needed before more refugees could be hosted.
“Funding would be needed to expand Azraq,” the diplomat said. “That has not been on the cards.”
In May, a Syrian aid conference in Brussels, the sixth since the conflict began, produced multi-year pledges for $6.7bn, compared with $6.4bn pledged at the same venue in 2021.
The money is earmarked to fund aid inside Syria proper, as well Syrian-related aid in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt — countries the EU regards as the most affected by the conflict.
Even if the aid pledges for Syria are met this year, a European-based diplomat said the Ukraine war has further reduced any chances of western countries paying for the reconstruction of Syria, as Russia has been urging them to do.
“There has been a fairly united European position that there will be no outright reconstruction funding without a political transition in Syria,” the diplomat said.
“The Ukraine war has also made that a practical impossibility.”
The specs: McLaren 600LT
Price, base: Dh914,000
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 600hp @ 7,500rpm
Torque: 620Nm @ 5,500rpm
Fuel economy 12.2.L / 100km
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
PROFILE OF CURE.FIT
Started: July 2016
Founders: Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori
Based: Bangalore, India
Sector: Health & wellness
Size: 500 employees
Investment: $250 million
Investors: Accel, Oaktree Capital (US); Chiratae Ventures, Epiq Capital, Innoven Capital, Kalaari Capital, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Piramal Group’s Anand Piramal, Pratithi Investment Trust, Ratan Tata (India); and Unilever Ventures (Unilever’s global venture capital arm)
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Bio
Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi
The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly
Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity
PROFILE BOX
Company name: Overwrite.ai
Founder: Ayman Alashkar
Started: Established in 2020
Based: Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai
Sector: PropTech
Initial investment: Self-funded by founder
Funding stage: Seed funding, in talks with angel investors
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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LILO & STITCH
Starring: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Rating: 4.5/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Boston%20Strangler
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2018 ICC World Twenty20 Asian Western Regional Qualifier
Saturday results
Qatar beat Kuwait by 26 runs
Bahrain beat Maldives by six wickets
UAE beat Saudi Arabia by seven wickets
Monday fixtures
Maldives v Qatar
Saudi Arabia v Kuwait
Bahrain v UAE
* The top three teams progress to the Asia Qualifier
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Brief scores:
Liverpool 3
Mane 24', Shaqiri 73', 80'
Manchester United 1
Lingard 33'
Man of the Match: Fabinho (Liverpool)
FROM%20THE%20ASHES
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More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
Porsche Taycan Turbo specs
Engine: Two permanent-magnet synchronous AC motors
Transmission: two-speed
Power: 671hp
Torque: 1050Nm
Range: 450km
Price: Dh601,800
On sale: now
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
PULITZER PRIZE 2020 WINNERS
JOURNALISM
Public Service
Anchorage Daily News in collaboration with ProPublica
Breaking News Reporting
Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
Investigative Reporting
Brian M. Rosenthal of The New York Times
Explanatory Reporting
Staff of The Washington Post
Local Reporting
Staff of The Baltimore Sun
National Reporting
T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi of ProPublica
and
Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker and Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Times
International Reporting
Staff of The New York Times
Feature Writing
Ben Taub of The New Yorker
Commentary
Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times
Criticism
Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times
Editorial Writing
Jeffery Gerritt of the Palestine (Tx.) Herald-Press
Editorial Cartooning
Barry Blitt, contributor, The New Yorker
Breaking News Photography
Photography Staff of Reuters
Feature Photography
Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of the Associated Press
Audio Reporting
Staff of This American Life with Molly O’Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green, freelancer, Vice News for “The Out Crowd”
LETTERS AND DRAMA
Fiction
"The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
Drama
"A Strange Loop" by Michael R. Jackson
History
"Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America" by W. Caleb McDaniel (Oxford University Press)
Biography
"Sontag: Her Life and Work" by Benjamin Moser (Ecco/HarperCollins)
Poetry
"The Tradition" by Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press)
General Nonfiction
"The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care" by Anne Boyer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
and
"The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America" by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books)
Music
"The Central Park Five" by Anthony Davis, premiered by Long Beach Opera on June 15, 2019
Special Citation
Ida B. Wells
Fixtures
50-over match
UAE v Lancashire, starts at 10am
Champion County match
MCC v Surrey, four-day match, starting on Sunday, March 24, play starts at 10am
Both matches are at ICC Academy, Dubai Sports City. Admission is free.
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
Heavily-sugared soft drinks slip through the tax net
Some popular drinks with high levels of sugar and caffeine have slipped through the fizz drink tax loophole, as they are not carbonated or classed as an energy drink.
Arizona Iced Tea with lemon is one of those beverages, with one 240 millilitre serving offering up 23 grams of sugar - about six teaspoons.
A 680ml can of Arizona Iced Tea costs just Dh6.
Most sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, five teaspoons of sugar in a 500ml bottle.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
KLOPP%20AT%20LIVERPOOL
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