U.N. aims to make first air drops of food to besieged in Syria: Egeland

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations plans to make its first air drops of food aid in Syria, to Deir al-Zor, a town of 200,000 besieged by Islamic State forces, the chair of a U.N. humanitarian task force said on Thursday.Jan Egeland, speaking to reporters after the task force met in Geneva, said that the U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) had a "concrete plan" for carrying out the operation in coming days, but gave no details."It's a complicated operation and would be in many ways the first of its kind," Egeland said, adding that many member states pledged support, including Russia and the United States.In the past 24 hours, 114 U.N. trucks delivered life-saving food and medical supplies to 80,000 people in five besieged areas, Egeland said, heralding progress but calling for access to more than 4 million people in hard-to-reach areas of Syria.(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Dominic Evans)Join the conversation about this story
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