Cracked

"Some Iraqi refugees said they had stopped receiving their once every two months ration of 25kg of rice, the bulk of the food aid they receive, and the main staple of their diet. “Iraqi people, we love rice,” Shada, a refugee from Baghdad, told IRIN at the UN-run distribution centre in Douma, on the outskirts of Damascus.

The government and WFP are currently in negotiations over the status of the rice. WFP is planning to buy some rice on the local market as an interim measure.

Several thousand tonnes of Indian rice imported by WFP have been sitting at the docks for the past two months. An official told Reuters this rice was “unfit for human consumption”. WFP told IRIN the rice had passed laboratory tests and met international standards, though the agency remains sensitive to Syrian concerns." (Thanks Marcy)