IDLIB, 17 April 2022, (TON): The United Nations World Food Programme is reducing life-saving food assistance to northwestern Syria from next month, and families say they fear going hungry.

The UN agency has been forced to reduce items in its monthly emergency food basket due to funding constraints and skyrocketing food prices, which have been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and economic crisis in Syria.

a WFP spokesperson, who asked that their name not be used, told media “for northwest Syria this means, starting May 2022, the food basket will reduce from 1,300 to 1,170 [kilocalories] per person.”

A local aid organisation in the northwest also confirmed to Al Jazeera that the WFP had notified them of the food assistance cuts by email on April 8.

The organisation asked to remain unnamed as it was not authorised to comment on the status of UN programmes.

The reduction means that needy families will receive the same amount of vegetable oil, wheat flour, salt, and sugar from the UN agency, but monthly quantities of lentils, chickpeas, rice, and bulgur wheat will be cut back.