UN agency still waiting for Syria aid money
(03-15 16:10)
UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos urged international donors who have pledged aid for war-hit Syrians to turn their promises into money in the bank, warning that aid agencies were running out of resources.
Amos said only US$300 million out of US$1.5 billion pledged at a donors' conference has been received six weeks later, AFP reports.
“We are actively trying to turn those pledges into money in the bank,'' Amos, the UN's under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, told AFP in an interview in Ankara.
“We urgently need these resources because of the deteriorating situation. Because the numbers are going up, organizations like [UN refugee agency] UNHCR... are running out of money.''
The appeal came a day after UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres urged governments to unlock the funds his agency needs to assist one million refugees who have fled Syria's war.
More than 100 UN international staff are operating in Syria and the number of Syrian staff exceeds 1,000. Since the beginning of the uprising against Assad's regime two years ago, eight UN staff members and 15 Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) volunteers have been killed, according to the UN.
Amos also called for a political solution to the war in Syria.
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