Billions of dollars have been pledged in aid for refugees from war-torn Syria on the first day of a donor conference.
Germany pledged $2.6bn (£1.9bn; €2.3bn) and the UK $1.7bn. The US pledged about $925m, most of it for life-saving assistance such as food and shelter. The goal of the donor conference is to raise $9bn (£6.2bn) for the refugees. However, it has been overshadowed by the suspension of peace talks in Geneva on Wednesday, and intense fighting on the ground. A funding shortfall last year forced the World Food Program, the UN agency responsible for feeding the refugees, to cut back. Some refugees no longer receive any food aid, while others get half what they did before. Monthly cash assistance has been reduced to $10 per person. Opening the conference in London, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said: “There is a critical shortfall in life-saving aid.” He and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon both spoke of the need to get all Syrian refugee children into education within months. Sixty countries are represented at the conference, including 30 world leaders.
It is the fourth of its kind, focusing on education and jobs for the 4.6 million Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries. Turkey is hosting 2.5 million - the largest number. Hours before the conference began, peace talks between the Syrian regime and opposition were suspended. The United Nations-brokered talks, which opened just two days ago, are expected to resume on 25 February.
Staffan de Mistura, the UN’s special envoy at the talks, admitted there had been a lack of progress but said that the negotiations had not failed. UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the talks were “undermined by the continuous lack of sufficient humanitarian access, and by a sudden increase of aerial bombings and military activities within Syria”.