Severe bread shortages loom for Syria as fresh US sanctions grip
DUBAI/BEIRUT Syria could face severe bread shortages for the first time since the start of the war, another challenge for President Bashar alAssad as he grapples with an economic meltdown and fresh US sanctions, a UN official, activists and farmers said.
Any major disruptions to Syria’s bread subsidy system could undermine the government and threaten a population highly dependent on wheat as rampant inflation drives up food prices. “There is already some evidence of people cutting out meals,” said Mike Robson, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Syria representative. “...If the currency continues under pressure, imports will be difficult to obtain and the months leading up to the 2021 wheat harvest may see real shortages.”
Syria’s economy is collapsing under the weight of its complex, multisided conflict, now in its tenth year, and a financial crisis in neighbouring Lebanon, choking off a vital source of dollars. Soaring prices have made life harder for Syrians ravaged by a war that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. In the past six months alone, the number of “food insecure” people in Syria is estimated to have risen from 7.9 million to 9.3 million, according to World Food Programme data.
“My 50,000 pound (monthly) salary ($21 on the informal market) is barely enough for a few days and I am living on debt. People are selling their furniture... In our lives this has never happened,” said state employee Yara.
The United States in June imposed its most sweeping sanctions on Syria yet. Washington says the Caesar Act excludes humanitarian aid and aims to hold Assad and his government accountable for war crimes. Syrian authorities blame Western sanctions for widespread hardship among ordinary citizens. The Syrian pound, which held steady at around 500 to the dollar for several years, went into free fall last year, hitting a low of 3,000 in June, in anticipation of fresh sanctions.
(Reuters)