São Paulo – The permanent representative of Kuwait at the UN, Mansour Al-Otaibi, said 90% of the amount pledged at the last donor conference for humanitarian aid to Syrians have in fact been disbursed, the Kuwait News Agency (Kuna) has reported this Friday (20th). The conference was held last January in the capital of the Arab country.
Otaibi said the actual amount donated has exceeded US$ 2 billion, out of pledges adding up to US$ 2.4 billion. He believes the total disbursed is “very high.”
The 2014 conference was the second one hosted by Kuwait to raise donations to Syrian conflict victims. The first conference took place in 2013, and a third one will be held on March 31st.
Kuwait itself pledged to donate US$ 300 million during the first event and US$ 500 million during the second one. Several countries committed to donating on both occasions, including Brazil.
The conference slated for late this month is intended to raise funds to help 12.5 million people affected by the conflict, including refugees in Syria’s neighboring countries or internally displaced persons, according to Kuna. The civil war has lasted for over four years now and casualties, according to the agency, have exceeded 220,000.
Kuna adds that the UN will request US$ 8.4 billion in donations in the upcoming event, based on a humanitarian action plan for this year and the next one. Since the conflict has lasted a long time with no solution in sight, there is fear of “donors fatigue.”
“This is the biggest humanitarian crisis, and the Syrian refugees which are 3.8 million people are the largest refugee community in the world,” Otaibi said. According to him, the sum requested by the UN is unprecedented.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
