The United Nations is expressing alarm over the emergence of videos that show food parcels distributed by the UN World Food Programme emblazoned with Islamic State logos.
According to Reuters, images have surfaced in social media that show cardboard boxes with papers carrying the Islamic State logo pasted on them and being distributed to refugees. The images allegedly depict refugees in Deir Hafr village in Syria, where the WFP had delivered food parcels with one month of supplies to 8,500 people in August.
WFP Emergency Regional Coordinator Muhannad Hadi blasted this latest attempt at propaganda by the Islamic State.
"WFP condemns this manipulation of desperately needed food aid inside Syria," he told Reuters through a statement issued on Monday. Hadi also said that the WFP is working to validate the authenticity of the images.
The World Food Programme works with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Organisation to distribute food aid to the people in Syria. According to the SARC, negotiations are carried out between them and all parties on the ground including the Islamic State prior to commencement of distribution.
"We negotiate for access, we always do this," Vivian Tou'meh, SARC head of communications, told Reuters on Tuesday.
Tou'meh also said that SARC volunteers deliver the food packages themselves on behalf of the WFP.
WFP also told Reuters that the Islamic State had carried out a raid in SARC's warehouses in September. The WFP alleged that the warehouses may have stored food parcels including packages from the WFP itself.
A radical Islamic extremist group that first emerged in June last year, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria aims to "create a broader Islamic caliphate." Reuters said that the group has to keep the public fed in order to depict its fledgling state as a genuine caliphate in the eyes of the international community.
