With Syria’s five-year-old civil war raging and another attempt at peace negotiations called off in Geneva after just a few days, a donor conference in London sought to address the needs of some 6 million people displaced within Syria and more than 4 million refugees in other countries.
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“And it means millions of people will now receive life-saving food, medical care and shelter in Syria and beyond”.
But participants at the aid conference in London acknowledged that prospects for ending the conflict have rarely been worse: Peace talks are suspended, fighting is intensifying, Russian Federation and the West are at odds, and millions of Syrians are suffering from bombardment, homelessness and hunger.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the conference the humanitarian corridor between Turkey and Aleppo has been cut off as Mr Assad’s troops inflict a “siege of starvation” on the city.
Some 6 billion U.S. dollars (£4.1 billion) was pledged for relief operations this year with a further 5 billion dollars (£3.4 billion) to be handed over by 2020, although t he commitments still fell short of the UN’s 7.7 billion dollar (£5.4 billion) target for 2016.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed the conference as “a great success”, adding: “Never has the worldwide community raised so much money on a single day for a single crisis”.
“Today’s pledge of more than £2.3 billion in United Kingdom aid sets the standard for the global community – more money is needed to tackle this crisis and it is needed now”.
They said that the whole world have a responsibility to commit to getting Syrian children into school, within months and not years.
“Without education, who will bring peace?” al-Melihan said.
France: Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has pledged about 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) from 2016 to 2018.
Cameron emphasized his country’s keenness to help Jordan to face the repercussions of the Syrian refugee crisis.
Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon have pledged to make sure all refugee children are given access to education.
Officials said they would also be looking to open up new trade and business opportunities for the host countries, in order to boost their economies and put them in a better position to help refugees.
Faced with insufficient humanitarian, development and resettlement support, these countries have implemented border restrictions that have effectively closed the border for refugees, leaving many trapped within Syria or forced to take risky journeys in search of safety.
“I have concluded, frankly, that after the first week of preparatory talks there is more work to be done, not only by us but by the stakeholders”, de Mistura, said after meeting with the opposition delegation at a Geneva hotel.
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Jordan’s King Abdullah II said that one in five people living in his country was now a refugee and that it had “reached our limit”.
