KUWAIT CITY // Around 60 nations have been invited to a second donors conference for Syria in a bid to raise an unprecedented $6.5 billion (Dh24bn) in humanitarian aid, a United Nations official said yesterday.
The UN on Monday appealed for a record $12.9 billion (Dh47bn) in global emergency aid, half of which is for victims of Syria’s war, which has killed an estimated 126,000 people and displaced millions more both within the country and across its borders.
The one-day event will be held on January 15 in Kuwait, which hosted the first conference a year ago, assistant UN Secretary General and Regional Humanitarian Coordinator Nigel Fisher told the KUNA news agency.
Mr Fisher said the funds will be used to aid around 13.4 million Syrians whom the UN estimates will be affected by the war by the end of 2014. The figure is higher than the original 10 million people announced by the UN six months ago.
* Agence France Presse
