AFP – 30 March 2015 – A UN envoy warned Monday of a “horrifying” humanitarian situation brewing in Syria as non-governmental organisations pledged more than $500 million for refugees on the eve of a major donor conference.
The United Nations has launched an appeal to raise $8.4 billion for Syria this year and hopes to receive major pledges at the donor meeting on Tuesday in Kuwait.
“Failing to meet the required funds risks resulting in a horrifying and dangerous humanitarian catastrophe,” Abdullah al-Maatuq, UN special envoy for humanitarian affairs, told a meeting of NGOs.

Among the aid groups which gathered on Monday, Turkey’s IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation made the largest pledge of $100 million.
Other donors included Qatar’s Red Crescent Society and Kuwait’s International Islamic Charity Organisation.
UN humanitarian affairs chief Valerie Amos said the donor response at Tuesday’s conference “needs to be comprehensive”.
She said the humanitarian situation had deteriorated in Syria with no reduction in violence and children particularly affected.
The aid is urgently required to provide life-saving assistance to half of Syria’s population as several UN aid agencies have said they remain underfunded and warned they could halt or downsize their operations.
The Third International Humanitarian Pledging Conference will be chaired by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and opened by Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.
Last year was the deadliest yet in the conflict, with at least 76,000 people killed out of a total of more than 215,000 since it began in March 2011 with peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations.
Since then, 11.4 million Syrians have fled their homes and nearly four million have left the country in what the UN has called the worst refugee crisis in 20 years.
Nearly 10 million people inside Syria do not have enough to eat, and more than 11 million urgently need clean water, UN reports say.
The UN children’s fund (UNICEF) says up to two million children are living in areas of Syria largely cut off from humanitarian aid and about 2.6 million are out of school.

Death toll and the humanitarian situation in Syria with economic data.