Top UN officials on Wednesday appealed at a major donors' conference for urgent funds to assist millions of people inside Syria and in neighboring countries who have been affected by the conflict that has raged for nearly three years.
The conflict, which began in March 2011, has produced "unprecedented" demands for humanitarian and development agencies,UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Second International Humanitarian Pledging Conference on Syria, held in Kuwait.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), an estimated 9.3 million people in Syria, many of them stranded in hard-to-reach and besieged areas, urgently need help. More than 3 million people have fled Syria and are taking refuge in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt, causing great hardship and raising tensions throughout the region.
"I am asking for strong international support to meet these massive humanitarian needs," Ban said, noting that an estimated $6.5 billion is needed this year.
In January 2013, the First Pledging Conference for Syria saw 43 Member States pledge $1.5 billion towards humanitarian efforts. Those funds were used to provide life-saving assistance for millions of people in Syria and surrounding countries, including emergency food rations, mobile medical care and vaccinations, clean water and sanitation, and basic shelter.
Hosted by the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, and chaired by the UN Secretary-General, the conference offers the international community to continue supporting the humanitarian response to help the millions affected by the Syria crisis.
The meeting comes ahead of next week's talks in Switzerland aimed at finding a political solution to the civil war that has already claimed well over 100,000 lives amid fighting between the Government and various groups seeking the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.
"This is the biggest humanitarian crisis we face today," UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos, who recently carried out her seventh visit to Syria in nearly two years, told the conference.
Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, noted in his remarks that within a few years, Syria has gone from being the world's second largest refugee-hosting country to becoming its fastest refugee-producing country.
"It breaks my heart to see the people of Syria, who for decades generously welcomed refugees from other countries in the region, now forced into exile themselves," said Guterres.
Guterres stressed that the generosity of Syria's neighbors needs to be matched by massive international support, and that countries in the region need not only strong financial assistance, but also need others to help carry the burden of actually taking in and protecting refugees.
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