UN WILL HOLD HIGH-LEVEL CONFERENCE FOR SYRIA
New York, 16 Safar 1434/29 December 2012 (MINA) – The United Nations to hold a summit next month to raise funds to alleviate the suffering of millions of Syrians who are in conflict.
The conference will be chaired by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on 30th January 2013 in Kuwait, according to a UN official release received Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) on Saturday (29/12).
It is said, the conference will be held following 1.5 billion USD appealed launched last week by the United Nations and its partners, who have been hampered in their efforts to carry out relief activities due to lack of funds.
Most of the appeal was declared 1 billion USD to help the Syrian refugees who fled to Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt. It is based on estimates of up to one million Syrian refugees will need help in the first half of next year.
Another five million USD will be needed to support an estimated four million people inside Syria who need urgent humanitarian assistance, including an estimated two million internally displaced persons.
The UN issued a statement today through Ban Ki Moon’s spokeperson that “a timely and much-needed opportunity to address the funding gap, it further said “The Secretary-General urges all Member States to be generous in their pledges and is thankful to those who continue to support the humanitarian efforts.”
This winter, many families in Syria with the majority of children are struggling to keep warm without clothing, adequate shelter and heating fuel.
At least 20 thousand people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria since the violence of President Bashar al-Assad began in early 2011.
In recent months there has been a surge in violence, which is now entering month 22 of since the conflict.
Meanwhile, the Joint Special Representative of the UN and the Arab League to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi went to Moscow to meet with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Saturday (29/12).
The departure was the latest meeting of a number of meetings in the region and elsewhere, including by President Assad in Damascus earlier this week organized by the Joint Special Representative as part of an effort to produce a solution, and political negotiations to end the fighting in Syria. (T/R-010/R-006)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
