DAMASCUS (WFP): The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has reached two new locations in Raqqa governorate with food assistance, using a newly opened land route that has allowed access for the first time in three years to Mansoura and other rural areas north of Raqqa city.
This new access allows WFP to expand its regular food deliveries to Raqqa. WFP is now delivering food every month to nearly 200,000 people, displaced in eight hard-to-reach locations inside Raqqa governorate as well as other areas in neighbouring governorates. Since June, WFP has dispatched 52 trucks carrying food assistance for these locations.
Taken over by ISIS in 2014
An example of the areas WFP can now reach by road is the city of Tabqa, in Raqqa, where WFP this month was able to double the number of people in need it reached, delivering monthly food rations to 25,000 people, many of whom have returned to their original homes and are now working to rebuild their lives.
Most of Raqqa was taken over by ISIS in 2014. WFP was able to reach parts of the governorate in March this year for the first time since July 2015.
