United Nations to raise $6.5 billion for war wracked Syria

Delegates from some 60 nations meet in Kuwait Wednesday at a UN donors conference which aims to raise a whopping $6.5 billion (4.7 billion euros) in aid for more than 13 million Syrians affected by war.  

 

The UN has described the appeal as the largest ever in its history for a single humanitarian emergency. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will chair the one-day ministerial-level Second International Pledging Conference for Syria, which will be opened by Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.  

 

UN Secretary General and Regional Humanitarian Coordinator Nigel  Fisher has told Kuwait's official KUNA news agency that the funds will be used to aid some 13.4 million Syrians whom the United Nations estimates will be affected by the Syrian civil war by the end of 2014. The figure is higher than the original 10 million peopleannounced by the United Nations seven months ago.

 

The United Nations will need $2.3 billion to support 9.3 million people inside Syria and $4.2 billion for Syrian refugees, expected to nearly double to 4.1 million by year's end, the UN official said. The donors conference comes just a week before the so-called 'Geneva 2' peace meeting aimed at finding a political solution to the 34-month conflict, which has claimed 130,000 lives.

 

The Swiss talks have been organised in an attempt to revive a long-stalled framework for peace involving a cessation of hostilities and the creation of a national transitional government that could involve figures from the current regime and the opposition. Ahead of his arrival in Kuwait City, Ban warned that thehumanitarian situation in Syria has been deteriorating and called on donor nations to help meet the target.

 

The situation has reached a "very serious and critical" level, Ban said in an interview with KUNA. "Almost half the population has been affected... 40 percent of the hospitals have been destroyed and another 20 percent not functioning properly. This is a very sad situation. "I sincerely hope that member states will come (to the Kuwait Conference) with generous helping hands" for the Syrian people inside and outside the country, he said.

 

UN humanitarian operations chief Valerie Amos said in a statement ahead of the conference that the money would be used to assist civilians affected by the civil war.  "In mid-December we launched the largest ever appeal for a single humanitarian emergency," Amos said.  "We requested $6.5 billion. We are doing our utmost to supportthe children, women and men affected by this bloody conflict. The funding that we need is unprecedented," she said.

 

The first donors conference in Kuwait in January last saw mparticipating nations pledge $1.5 billion but only around 75 percent of the pledges were fulfilled, according to a Kuwaiti official. Ban has affirmed to KUNA that the UN is experiencing "serious funding gaps".  According to aid agencies, 10.5 million Syrians are food minsecure or severely food insecure, over a million children under five suffer from acute or severe malnutrition, about half the mpopulation has no access to adequate water sources or sanitation facilities and 8.6 million have insufficient access to healthcare.

 

 Lebanon is currently home to the largest number of refugees with  m905,000, followed by Jordan with 575,000, Turkey 562,000, Iraq 216,000 and Egypt 145,000.  By the end of 2014, these numbers are estimated to rise to 1.65 million in Lebanon, 800,000 in Jordan, 1.0 million in Turkey, 400,000 in Iraq and 250,000 in Egypt.

 

 

-Sapa