US provides $55 million in additional food assistance for Syrian refugees in Jordan

AMMAN — Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman announced in Jordan yesterday that the United States, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing $55 million in additional food assistance for the Syria crisis response. 

The combined effects of over a decade of war in Syria, Russia’s war against Ukraine, and the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed millions of people in Syria already in crisis further towards catastrophic food security outcomes, including Syrians displaced in neighbouring countries like Jordan. 

This new assistance will help USAID partner the World Food Programme (WFP) meet emergency food needs of more than 460,000 Syrian refugees. USAID’s funding will provide cash-based assistance for families to purchase food in Jordanian stores, which will, in turn, support the local economy, according to a USAID statement on Thursday.

Since the start of the war in Syria nearly 12 years ago, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have crossed into neighbouring Jordan to seek refuge from the conflict. As of March 2023, Jordan hosts more than 670,000 registered Syrian refugees, the third-largest population of Syrian refugees in the world. With support from USAID, WFP provides critical food assistance to 460,000 at-risk Syrian and other refugees in Jordan each month.

The United States remains the single largest humanitarian donor to the Syria response and has provided nearly $16 billion in humanitarian assistance throughout Syria and the region since the start of the conflict. The United States urges other donors to support the Syrian people given the scale and urgency of needs and the outstanding funding gaps, concluded the statement.