COPENHAGEN, Denmark
A top Syrian opposition leader slammed Friday the decision of the UN to suspend food aid to nearly two million Syrian refugees.
The UN announced on Dec. 1 that it was suspending its food assistance voucher program that helped feed around 1.7 million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries due to lack of funds.
“We cannot understand how the international community has allowed these people, 60 percent of which are children and women, to starve in harsh winter conditions,” President of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, Hadi al-Bahra, said.
Al-Bahra made the comments in Copenhagen at a joint press conference with Danish Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard.
Lidegaard said Denmark would donate 10 million Danish Krone, or more than 1.3 million euros, for the Syrian refugees. “This money will be used during the winter,” he said.
Al-Bahra said that radical groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, were "consequences of the Assad regime’s behavior." He also spoke about various challenges the opposition Syrian groups were facing in the fight against the Assad regime and the ISIL terrorists.
Since 2011, around 3.2 million people have fled beyond Syria’s borders, and more than 7.2 million have become internally displaced, the UN said.
www.aa.com.tr/en
