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

By RAF CASERT and KAREEM CHEHAYEB
Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — International donors have committed $10.3 billion in aid for millions of Syrians battered by war, poverty, and hunger. However, the pledges from 57 nations and 30 international organizations at an annual European Union-hosted conference in Brussels for Syria fall about $800 million short of a United Nations humanitarian appeal. Funding from the conference will help provide aid to Syrians inside the war-torn country and to some 5.7 million Syrian refugees living in neighboring countries, particularly Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Syria’s uprising-turned conflict, now in its thirteenth year, has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of its prewar population of 23 million.