Senior United Nations officials have called on the international community to set up funding for relief programmes supporting millions of people in Syria and the region, who depend on the life-saving assistance and livelihood support after a decade of brutal conflict. With the added impact of the coronavirus pandemic, “there is no respite for civilians in Syria”, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and UN Development Programme (UNDP) said in a joint news release on Monday.
Across Syria and in the region, 24 million people are in need of humanitarian or other forms of assistance – 4 million more than last year – and the highest since the conflict started.
The appeal was made ahead of the fifth Brussels conference for Syria, which will be held on 29 and 30 March, to mobilise funds to support food, water and sanitation, health services, education, child vaccinations and shelter within Syria.
The funds will also support cash assistance programmes, job and training opportunities, and other services such as access to primary and secondary education, in conjunction with national systems in neighbouring countries, according to the UN agencies. In all, over $10 billion is needed to fully support Syrians and refugee-hosting communities in need, they added. The amount includes at least $4.2 billion for response inside Syria and $5.8 billion for refugees and host communities in the region.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Conference will take place in a virtual setting.
At last year’s conference in Brussels, donors pledged $5.5 billion in funding to support humanitarian, resilience and development activities in 2020.
Source: The UN
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