REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait's emir promised 500 million USD on Wednesday for UN humanitarian efforts in Syria, devastated by almost three years of civil war. Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah made the pledge at an international donor conference intended to help the world body reach a 6.5 billion USD aid target for the crisis in 2014.
"The flames of the humanitarian crisis in Syria are still going on ... destroying all signs of life," he said, describing the conflict as a catastrophe.
"It is my honor to declare from this conference that the state of Kuwait pledges 500 million USD."
The appeal launched last month is the largest in the history of the United Nations, which estimates that the conflict has rolled back human development gains in Syria by 35 years, with half the population now living in poverty.
The 1.5 billion USD pledged via the United Nations at a similar meeting last year in Kuwait was used in Syria and surrounding countries to provide food rations, medicine, drinking water and shelters. The largest donations at that conference came from Gulf Arab governments. Overall, only 70 percent of all of the crisis funding needed for Syria in 2013 has been received by the United Nations, according to the body's Financial Tracking Service (FTS).
"Even under the best circumstances, the fighting has set back Syria years, even decades," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is chairing the Kuwait conference.
Ban has previously expressed regret that not all of promised donations have been received from the last meeting, with 20-30 percent still lacking. Ban told the gathering on Wednesday he hoped peace talks due to be held in Switzerland on January 22 would bring the Syrian government and opposition to the negotiating table.
"I hope this will launch a political process to establish a transitional governing body with a full executive powers, and most importantly, end the violence," he said.
The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday it had delivered rations to a record 3.8 million people in Syria in December, but civilians in eastern provinces and besieged towns near the capital remain out of reach. The agency voiced concern at reports of malnutrition in besieged areas, especially of children caught up in the nearly three-year-old civil war, and called for greater access. The WFP says it needs to raise 35 million USD every week to meet the food needs of people both inside Syria and in neighboring countries.
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