Kuwait City – The United Nations (UN) hopes to raise more than US$ 1.5 billion at the Second International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria, to be held this Wednesday (15) in Kuwait City. For the second year in a row, government representatives and humanitarian help organizations are meeting in the Arab country with the aim of raising awareness among the international community and pledge resources for those affected by the Syrian civil conflict, which has been going on for almost three years.
In 2013, the sum raised in the first conference, also held in Kuwait, was of US$ 1.5 billion. “How much are we raising? At least that, but we hope for more,” said to ANBA the spokesperson of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Jens Laerke. “It depends on the generosity of donors,” he added.
The UN has informed that this year it needs US$ 6.5 billion to help 9.3 million Syrians affected by the conflict, among them 2.3 million refugees in neighboring countries and 6.5 million who are homeless inside Syria itself. “We don’t expect to raise all this on Wednesday, but there will be other opportunities,” stated Laerke.
He emphasized, however, that the organizations involved in helping Syrians count on the generosity of donors, mostly governments. “The Gulf countries have been very generous, not only in donations to Syria, but also for other nations, such as Yemen and Palestine, and even places outside the Middle East, such as Haiti,” he declared. Kuwait alone has announced the donation of US$ 300 million in last year’s conference. “We hope they will be generous again,” said the OCHA spokesperson.
The State Minister of Cabinet Affairs of Kuwait, Mohammed Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah, who inaugurated this Monday (13) the conference’s press center at the Jumeirah Messilah Beach hotel, in the Kuwaiti capital city, told journalists that part of the money granted by the country in the 2013 event was used to provide shelter for 70,000 Syrians who have taken refuge in Jordan, US$ 40 million were used to buy food for 1 million refugees during four months and another sum was directed to 83,000 Syrians left without homes inside Syria itself, helped by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), one of the various UN agencies involved in helping those affected by the conflict.
“We are confident that the conference will be a success,” said minister Mohammed. “We are confident that the international community will contribute to provide humanitarian help for Syrians. We shall reach this objective, ‘inchallah’ (God willing),” added the Kuwaiti minister of Information, Salman Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, who also participated at the press center inauguration.
According to Laerke, resources are necessary to meet the basic needs of the affected population, such as food, clean water, medication, vaccination and shelter. “Syria is [currently] going through a harsh winter, and they need adequate homes, with thermal insulation, they need fuel [for heating], blankets and also clothes,” he stated. “There are children who don’t even have shoes,” he alerted.
Last week, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), another two UN agencies that are helping with the Syrian crisis, launched a campaign with the purpose of raising US$ 1 billion for the children affected by the conflict, named “No lost generation”. The agencies have calculated that there are more than 4 million youngsters at risk, of which one million refugees and more than 3 million inside the country.
Minister Mohammed Al-Sabah has informed that 69 countries shall be represented on Wednesday’s conference, as well as 24 international organizations. The event shall be hosted by the emir of Kuwait, Sabah Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah, and shall be presided by the United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon. Brazil shall be represented at the meeting, which also counts on the participation of the secretary of State for the United States, John Kerry.
The Kuwaiti meeting precedes the Second Syria Peace Conference, scheduled for the January 22 in Montreux, in Switzerland. The first edition took place in June 2012, in Geneva, so this one has been named “Geneva 2”, although it shall take place in another city. The 2012 meeting did not have practical effects on the civil war, but the idea this time is to have representatives from both the Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad regime and the opposition, standing face to face.
Since the conflict started in 2011, after popular manifestations which took place in the wake of the Arab Spring were harshly repressed by the Syrian government, more than 100,000 people have died. This figure, the latest confirmed by the UN, dates to July 2013. Last week, the organization announced that it has stopped counting the dead due to the difficulties in obtaining reliable data from the country.
*Translated by Silvia Lindsey
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