U.N. Calls for Harvest Ceasefire in Syria

The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) on Tuesday called for a humanitarian ceasefire in Syria to allow farmers in the war-torn country, which is ravaged by food shortages, to harvest their crops.

"With indications that the 2015 harvest in Syria may exceed the last two years’ harvests at a time of massive food insecurity and internal displacement, it is paramount that crops are not lost and that food stays within the country," WFP director Ertharin Cousin said in a statement.

"Without a humanitarian pause by all sides" to facilitate the transport of food across the country, Syrians in some areas would "still go hungry despite a good harvest," Cousin added.

In the absence of a truce, food prices would also remain high, the statement warned.

Aid agencies have repeatedly called for action to ease the plight of Syrians caught up in a devastating, four-year-old civil war.

U.N. officials have expressed particular concern recently for residents of the rebel bastion of Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, which has been besieged by government forces for nearly two years, as well as the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmuk, on the city's southern outskirts.