Donor nations commit $10.3 billion for millions of Syrians at home and as refugees abroad

BRUSSELS (AP) — International donors said Thursday they would commit $10.3 billion in aid for millions of Syrians battered by war, poverty, and hunger, both at home and as refugees abroad.

The pledges by 57 nations and 30 international organizations at an annual European Union-hosted conference in Brussels for Syria fell about $800 million short of a United Nations humanitarian appeal.

“This is a tangible demonstration that the international community stands by the Syrian people,” said EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Janez Lenarčič, who closed out the day-long meeting at the headquarters of the 27-nation bloc.

He said the total of grants and loans was about $875 million higher than last year's pledge. However, exact comparisons are difficult: commitments can be spread over years and different institutions. They can be affected by inflation and devaluations, and can partly recur later.

Yet the total seemed higher than what many had expected.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres had asked donors for $11.1 billion, what he called “our largest appeal worldwide."

“My appeal is simple: Help us help the Syrian people,” Guterres said. “We have no time to spare.”

The money raised will provide aid to Syrians inside the war-torn country and to some 5.7 million Syrian refugees, mostly in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

Syria’s uprising-turned conflict, now in its 13th year, has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of its prewar population of 23 million.

Amid pressing needs across the globe from Ukraine to Sudan, the annual donor conference raised fears of a serious shortfall of expectations. Lenarčič's figures countered that.

The gathering also had more political overtones as Syrian President Bashar Assad is slowly carving his way back from being an international pariah to the regional mainstream. Finding hard cash, though, remained key.

But for nations hit by economic difficulties, a surge in inflation that has hurt the poor in even the wealthiest nations and the seemingly hopeless situation that drags on in Syria’s conflict, money is increasingly hard to come by.

Because of the funding crisis, Guterres said food aid to the 5.5 million people in Syria who had been receiving assistance would have to be drastically cut.

“Our cash assistance will run out for two and a half million Syrians next month alone,” Guterres said, calling it “priority number one.”

The crisis is also hitting the neighboring nations which host some 5.7 million refugees and are facing economic crises of their own.

Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi of Jordan, which hosts about 1.3 million Syrians, said, “Handling the burden of refugees is a partnership between donor states and host states." If donor states didn't play their role, he added, host states couldn't be expected to do as much.

The pledging conference comes at a politically precarious time. Assad recently received a major political lifeline with the return of Syria to the Arab League. Several of Syria's neighbors, led by Saudi Arabia have been holding talks with it to resolve its ongoing security and economic crisis, hoping that it would lead to mass refugee returns.

However, Josep Borrell, foreign policy chief of the 27-nation EU, insisted that the bloc would not change its policies toward Assad, including maintaining sanctions against his regime. “We are not on the same line as the Arab League. That’s clear,” Borrell said. He added, however, that he would be interested in what the league could achieve with its new position.

The conference comes after a deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked large swaths of Syria in February, further compounding its misery. The World Bank estimated over $5 billion in damages as the quake destroyed homes and hospitals and further crippled Syria’s poor power and water infrastructure.

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Cheyaheb reported from Beirut.