UN launches record humanitarian appeal for Syria

The United Nations (UN) announced on Monday its humanitarian plans for 2014, which include an ambitious campaign to raise $6.5 billion for Syria and its neighbours to provide relief for up to 16 million Syrians, making it the largest ever humanitarian appeal for a single crisis.

In a press statement, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said that many Syrian refugees feel that the world does not understand their tragedy and has not united to help them.

The proposed aid is to help Syrians displaced internally and externally. According to the statement, around $2.3 billion is for the people trapped inside Syria, and the remaining $4.2 billion is for Syrian refugees and communities in the neighbouring countries like Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.

Amos stressed that the worsening humanitarian crisis in Syria “is one of the biggest crises in modern history,” adding that “This is the largest amount we have ever had to request.”

According to UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres, “We’re facing a terrifying situation here where, by the end of 2014, substantially more of the population of Syria could be displaced or in need of humanitarian help than not.”

Today millions of Syrians are hungry or homeless victims of a conflict that has now lasted 33 months. Guterres concluded that “it remains of life-saving importance that the international humanitarian response is supported. Massive international solidarity is crucial.”