The Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Ertharin Cousin, will be in Turkey 13-15 January to visit WFP’s food assistance operation for Syrian refugees and to hold meetings with senior government officials in Ankara and Istanbul.
Cousin will hold a news conference at Kilis refugee camp in which she will brief journalists about the developing humanitarian situation in Syria and WFP programmes to support refugees in the neighbouring countries.
Inside Syria, WFP has scaled up its operations and is reaching 1.5 million people monthly with food assistance. WFP’s Regional Emergency Operation to cover the food needs of refugees in neighbouring countries was launched in July and is now expanding to include the new wave of arrivals of refugees fleeing to Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
In Turkey, WFP has partnered with the Turkish Red Crescent to provide assistance to Syrian refugees through an electronic food voucher programme in the refugee camps.
