Opening the first pledging session, United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-Moon urged the global community to meet the “enormous needs” of people caught up in the conflict.
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“People are reduced to eating grass and leaves and killing stray animals in order to survive on a day-to-day basis”, said Secretary of State John Kerry.
While the conference has been a financial success, the prospects for ending the war in Syria look bleaker than ever, the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent James Robbins says. Another 6 million people or more are displaced within Syria, and a quarter of a million have been killed. It has also triggered an worldwide refugee crisis that has spilled over to other Middle Eastern countries, Europe and beyond.
£4.1 billion has been promised for this year, and a further £3.4 billion will be handed over by 2020, Mr Cameron said.
The United Nations, Kuwait, Germany, Norway, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey announced the funds at the Supporting Syria and the Region Conference in London this morning, where world leaders, delegations, NGOs, the private sector and civil society will convene in hopes of alleviating the impact of the devastating conflict as it approaches its sixth year.
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.
Kerry blamed Syria’s government and Russian Federation for the peace talks stalling.
“It is important to intensify the political discussions about Syria”, the German minister said.
Neither statement mentioned any concrete measures.
Russian Federation is represented at the conference by Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko.
Underlining the desperate situation on the ground, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the meeting that tens of thousands of Syrians were on the move towards his country to escape aerial bombardments on the city of Aleppo. The faltering peace process increases pressure on donor countries to commit long-term aid to the victims of a five-year civil war that has no quick end in sight. Our education assistance will reach approximately 230,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan, and 62,000 in Lebanon.
“The worldwide union is backing them with the resources which will allow them to ensure there is no lost generation”, he said, adding that one million children now not in school would have access to education by the end of the next school year.
“Without education, who will bring peace?” al-Melihan said.
The same countries have also held back the support for Syrian refugees.
While Amman has been receptive to hosting refugees for decades, particularly Iraqis and Palestinians, this crisis is much bigger and harder for them to deal with. It’s a pilot project aiming to airlift about 1,000 particularly vulnerable refugees – the sick, elderly or disabled, and women alone with young children – and spare them the perilous sea journey to Europe.
Syria’s neighbors had warned the conference that the burden of so many newcomers was becoming intolerable.
David Cameron has hailed global pledges totalling more than £7 billion to ease the plight of Syrian refugees, amid warnings the latest onslaught by President Bashar Assad’s forces could trigger a new mass exodus. Syrian border states, including Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan, continue to host the majority of these refugees, who have fled horrific violence and conflict in their country.
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“We’re now in a situation in Syria where 13.7 million people have been displaced within their own country”.
