Donor conference Syria yields 3.6 billion

brussels - At the international Syria conference in Brussels, a total of 4.4 billion dollars (3.6 billion euros) was pledged for humanitarian aid to Syrians, both in their own country and for relief in surrounding countries. That estimate was made by UN emergency aid coordinator Mark Lowcock. He had hoped for a higher amount.

He noted that some large donors, including the US, could not yet announce an amount. The US donated about one billion dollars in previous years. Lowcock praised the major contributions from Germany (1 billion euros) and the United Kingdom (over half a billion). The Netherlands will make 120 million available in 2018.

The UN needs 7.3 billion euros this year for emergency relief, of which roughly a third for Syria itself and the remainder for refugees in countries such as Lebanon and Jordan. For 2019 and beyond, 3.3 billion dollars has already been pledged.

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