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February 5, 2016

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World leaders gather in London in bid to solve Syrian refugees crisis

Source: Agencies | February 5, 2016, Friday | Print Edition

DONOR nations pledged billions of dollars in aid to Syrians yesterday as world leaders gathered for a conference to tackle the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with Turkey reporting a new exodus of tens of thousands fleeing airstrikes.

With the civil war in Syria still raging and another attempt at peace negotiations called off in Geneva after just a few days, the London conference aims to address the needs of some 6 million people displaced within Syria and more than 4 million refugees in other countries.

Underlining the desperate situation on the ground in Syria, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the meeting that tens of thousands of Syrians were on the move toward his country to escape aerial bombardments on the city of Aleppo.

“Sixty to seventy thousand people in the camps in north Aleppo are moving toward Turkey. My mind is not now in London, but on our border — how to relocate these new people coming from Syria?” he said. “Three hundred thousand people living in Aleppo are ready to move toward Turkey.”

Turkey is already hosting more than 2.5 million Syrian refugees. Jordan and Lebanon are the other countries bearing the brunt of the Syrian refugee exodus.

“Looking into the eyes of my people, and seeing the hardship and distress they carry, I must tell you we have reached our limit,” said Jordan’s King Abdullah.

Several speakers also made the point that while the situation of refugees was bad, that of Syrians trapped inside the country enduring bombardments, sieges and, in some places, starvation was far worse.

“With people reduced to eating grass and leaves and killing stray animals in order to survive on a day-to-day basis, that is something that should tear at the conscience of all civilized people and we all have a responsibility to respond to it,” US Secretary of State John Kerry told the conference.

United Nations agencies are appealing for US$7.73 billion to cope with the Syrian emergency this year, and countries in the region are asking for an additional US$1.2 billion.

Conference co-hosts Britain, Norway and Germany were the first to announce their pledges, followed by the United States, the European Union, Japan and other nations.

Britain and Norway promised an extra US$1.76 billion and US$1.17 billion respectively by 2020, while Germany said it would give US$2.57 billion by 2018. The United States said its contribution this fiscal year would be US$890 million.

The conflict has killed an estimated 250,000 people and stoked the spread of Islamist militancy across the Middle East and North Africa.

For European nations, improving the humanitarian situation in Syria and neighboring countries is crucial to reducing incentives for Syrians to travel to Europe, where a large refugee influx has put many countries under severe strain.

A UN envoy halted his attempts to conduct Syrian peace talks on Wednesday after the Syrian army advanced against rebel forces north of Aleppo, choking opposition supply lines from Turkey to the city.

Kerry told the conference he had spoken to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov about the situation. “We have agreed that we are engaged in a discussion about how to implement the cease-fire specifically as well as some immediate, possible confidence-building steps to deliver humanitarian assistance,” he said.

US and Russian support for opposing sides in the war, which has drawn in regional states and enabled the spread of Islamic State insurgents, means a local conflict has become an increasingly fraught global standoff.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the first steps in the Geneva peace talks had been undermined by a lack of sufficient humanitarian access and a sudden increase in aerial bombing and military activity on the ground. “The coming days should be used to get back to the table, not to secure more gains on the battlefield,” he said.

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