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Update: Kuwait holds donor conference for Syrian crisis

Xinhua, March 31, 2015 Adjust font size:

The third edition of an international donor conference for Syria opened Tuesday in Kuwait City, with the UN appealing for 8.4 billion U.S. dollars to fund aid programs in 2015.

Speaking at the conference, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the Syrian crisis is the "worst humanitarian crisis of our time. The Syrians are not asking for sympathy, they are asking for help."

In addition to financial aid, Ban said the best humanitarian solution to end the suffering is a political solution to end the war.

According to a UN report, 2.9 billion U.S. dollars will be dedicated to internally displaced Syrians while the rest are allocated for Syrians who have escaped the country.

UN's top refugee aid agency UNHCR said the fund would help cover food, health, shelter and other costs for 12.2 million people in Syria and nearly four million refugees who have flooded neighboring countries including Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

Representatives from 78 countries and 40 international organizations came to the Gulf state to try to meet the UN's appeal, which was significantly higher than the 3.9 billion U.S. dollars raised in the two previous conferences.

The fund will be distributed to UNHCR, UNICEF, WHO, WFP and other UN humanitarian aid agencies.

On behalf of the host country, Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah pledged 500 million dollars. He called the Syrian crisis "the biggest humanitarian catastrophe in the modern history of mankind."

In a non-government organization fundraiser held Monday, 506 million dollars were contributed by Kuwaiti and international NGOs.

The Syrian crisis has been raging on for more than four years, during which more than 220,000 people were killed, 12 million left homeless, and average life expectancy of Syrians was cut by 20 years. Endit