UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that Syrians were facing the “worst humanitarian crisis of our time” and regional stability was buckling under the weight of despair and children are suffering on a scale that “haunts the soul”.

He was addressing the Third International Pledging Conference in Kuwait, appealing for $8.4 billion, almost four times the amount asked for last year.

“I have only shame and deep anger and frustration at the international community’s impotence to stop the war,” said Mr Ban. He pointed out that nearly five million Syrians were still trapped without food or medical help in hard-to-reach or besieged areas.

Know more: Aid workers voice frustration as Syria conflict enters fifth year

“We have seen the consequences of under-funding: They are catastrophic, leaving neighbouring countries on their own as they struggle to provide for refugees while meeting their own development needs,” he added.

Mr Ban is in Kuwait City to oversee the Third International Humanitarian Pledging Conference, which aims to mobilize donor support and raise funds to meet the needs set out in the 2015 Syria Response Plan and the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP) 2015-2016.

“Young girls and boys have been systematically killed, injured and displaced,” Mr Ban emphasised, warning that the millions of children out of school are creating a “lost generation” of Syrians. The 2015 appeals amount to $8.4 billion.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2015

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