An global donor conference in London has received pledges totaling of around $10 billion by 2020 to help the millions of Syrians displaced by civil war and neighboring countries struggling with the refugee crisis.
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Some $600 million is going to life-saving assistance for Syrians, including food, shelter and camp supplies.
It aims to raise $7.7 billion requested by the United Nations for Syria, and about $1.3 billion requested by countries in the region – Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey – which are shouldering the brunt of the humanitarian burden caused by crisis, housing about 4.6 million refugees.
W orld leaders at a donor conference in London on Thursday pledged billions of dollars in aid to Syrian refugees and those in need inside Syria.
Backed by a wave of Russian airstrikes, Syrian government forces have advanced this week against rebel positions on the road to the country’s second city Aleppo.
Underlining the desperate situation on the ground in Syria, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the meeting that up to 70,000 Syrians were headed towards his country to escape a new wave of aerial bombardments on the city of Aleppo.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said that “using fundraising to build stability, create jobs and provide education can have a transformational effect in the region – and create a future model for humanitarian relief”.
“Never has the worldwide community raised so much money on a single day for a single crisis”, Ban said.
The conference will focus particularly on the need to provide an education for displaced Syrian children and job opportunities for adults, reflecting growing recognition that the fallout from the Syrian war will be very long-term. “The coming days should be used to get back to the table, not to secure more gains on the battlefield”, he said.
Jordan’s King Abdullah said his country housed nearly 1.3 million Syrian refugees, a fifth of Jordan’s population.
Humanitarian access to besieged communities in Syria can not wait for the outcome of peace talks, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said.
Russian airstrikes on Aleppo over the past week have killed at least 21 civilians, the Observatory said, although a local activist speaking on condition of anonymity told Al Jazeera that the casualties number almost 40.
In a speech to diplomats from 79 countries attending the conference, Kerry characterized the stumble in the talks as a “temporary recess”.
“We invite our USA ally to act more determined and clearly against Russian Federation”, he said.
“But the conference I am hosting today is about more than just money”.
“To stop the flow of refugees”, he said, “we have to end the war”. In all, the United States has committed $5.1 billion in aid since 2011, the most of any nation. Not only the Syrians in Turkey or Jordan or Lebanon, but also the Syrians within their own country that we will do everything possible to help them.
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European countries hope that providing more support for refugees in the Middle East will stem the tide of Syrians making the risky journey to Europe.
