International Donors Pledge $3.8 Billion for Victims of Syrian Conflict

KUWAIT CITY – The international community pledged on Tuesday a total of more than 3.5 billion euros ($3.8 billion) financial assistance to the victims of the Syrian crisis during the Kuwait III, the Third International Pledging Humanitarian Conference for Syria.

During the UN-backed conference held in Kuwait City, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed that the United Nations would not allow criminals to go unpunished, while he expressed his general despair regarding the situation.

“I have only shame and deep anger and frustration at the international community’s impotence to stop the war,” he said.

The donations will be used in a transparent and responsible manner by UN humanitarian organizations and agencies, the UN secretary-general assured in the fundraiser’s final press conference.

Ban Ki-moon praised the amount of contributions raised during the conference, including the Kuwaiti donation upward of 465 million euros ($500 million) that kicked off the conference, and the 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in aid to Syria pledged by the European Union on behalf of its member states.

The Kuwaiti Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, speaking to the audience at the conference’s commencement, reminded the invitees that only 90 percent of the commitments made during the 2012 conference had been fulfilled.

UN secretary-general also brought to light that both regime and opposition forces hinder the process of distributing aid to afflicted civilians, while he grieved the 69 rescue workers who were killed in Syria in 2014.

Other speakers at the fundraiser were equally somber about the Syrian crisis, as Valerie Amos, the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, reminded that with each passing day the situation worsens in Syria.

In a press conference following the Kuwait III, the Third International Pledging Humanitarian Conference for Syria, Amos said that 12 million people are desperately in need of help inside Syria, and pointed out that four million refugees are in neighboring countries.

Amos equally stressed the need to support communities receiving refugees, referring also to the negative economic impacts resulting from high influxes of displaced refugees on host countries.

Syria is now entering its fifth consecutive year of loss and bloodshed, during which than 220,000 people, including civilians and combatants, have been killed in Syria since the outbreak of the conflict in March 2011, according to the United Nations.