US sending $10 million to relieve Syrian food crisis

Money is ‘primarily directed at getting flour into the north of Syria,’ says State Department

26 January 2013, 12:39 am

Edit

Men make bread at a bakery in the old city of Aleppo (photo credit: Andoni Lubaki/AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is preparing to send Syria $10 million in additional humanitarian assistance to help alleviate hunger in northern parts of the conflict-ravaged Arab country.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says senior U.S. aid and refugee officials have been in Turkey visiting camps for uprooted Syrians and speaking with Turkish officials.

They head Saturday to Jordan, while the U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, will be traveling on to Paris to speak with the French government.

Nuland says one of the results of the trip will be $10 million in new U.S. aid.

She says the money is, quote, “primarily directed at getting flour into the north of Syria, into bakeries in Aleppo, where there’s a real crying need.”