UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos has said that only nine percent of the funds needed to help Syrian refugees – both inside and outside Syria – and their host countries were available.
Speaking at an international, Kuwait-hosted donors' conference on Syria, Amos said that some $8.4 billion was needed to help displaced Syrians inside Syria and in neighboring countries, as well as their host countries, but added that only nine percent of this had been collected.
She also stressed the risks taken by aid workers in Syria, saying 72 had been killed in the war-torn country – including 42 from the Syrian Red Crescent Society – since the conflict began more than four years ago.
Amos also noted that her agency had managed, with the help of partners, to provide food on a monthly basis to some five million people affected by the Syrian crisis.
Representatives of 78 countries gathered in Kuwait City on Tuesday for a conference aimed at raising funds for UN aid contributions to the Syrian people.
Tuesday's donors' conference is the third to be organized in Kuwait on the Syria crisis.
Syria's civil conflict, which broke out in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, has left tens of thousands of people dead and millions of others displaced, both internally and externally.
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