Helping Syrians: Aid without access

Donors at an international conference for Syria have pledged around $10 billion to alleviate the plight of refugees. But raising cash may be a lot easier than delivering aid - especially when hunger is used as a weapon of war.

The five-year civil war raging in Syria, which has metastasized into the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, is spawning human tragedies faster than the world’s ability to keep pace.
"After almost five years of fighting, it's pretty incredible that as we come here in London in 2016 the situation on the ground is actually worse," US Secretary of State John Kerry told delegates from some 70 countries.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was blunter.
"The situation in Syria is as close to hell as we are likely to find on this earth,” he said. His organisation, he noted, has been unable to get aid to hundreds of thousands of Syrians in communities under siege.
This week’s donors' conference in London - like similar Syria-related appeals in the past - aims to salve the wounds of a brutal conflict whose toll of killing, uprooting, bombardment, siege, starvation and terror has defied resolution.
Resigning themselves to the prospect of a protracted war, the donors are focusing on helping to provide schooling and job opportunities to some 4.5 million Syrian refugees in the four neighboring countries that have borne the brunt of the exodus: Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.
To this end, the Nobel peace prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai, challenged donors to provide education for the 700,000 Syrian children who have seen their schooling cut short by war.
An incentive to stay
For big donors such as Germany, Britain, Norway and the US, the strategy is as much about altruism ... Go on reading on our web site.
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