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THE U.N. CHIEF Ban Ki-moon appealed for a major boost in international relief aid for Syria and called for the fighting to end “in the name of humanity” even as more refugees poured into neighbouring Jordan and its leader warned resources were strained to the limit.
The U.N.’s call for up to $1.5 billion in humanitarian assistance at an international conference in Kuwait reflects the deepening civilian crisis inside Syria and the civil war’s increasing spillover around the region.
Jordan’s economic council said the kingdom had spent more than $833 million on aid for refugees — accounting for nearly half the estimated 700,000 people who have fled Syria — and that it was unable to sustain a financial burden that has so far siphoned off about 3 per cent of its GDP.
Some U.N. officials say the refugee figures could approach 1 million later this year if the conflict in Syria does not ease.
A Syrian refugee stands on top of a water tank at Zaatari refugee camp, near the Syrian border in Mafraq, Jordan. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon, File)
Speaking at the U.N.-led gathering in Kuwait, Jordan’s King Abdullah II said sheltering and assisting the refugee wave is above the country’s “capacity and potential.”
Last week, the king used the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to amplify his appeal for international help as “the weakest refugees are struggling now just to survive this year’s harsh winter” and more cross the Syria-Jordan border at up to 3,000 a day.
In his opening remarks, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged all sides “and particularly the Syrian government” to halt attacks in the 22-month-old civil war that the U.N. says has claimed more than 60,000 lives.
Aid officials estimate that more than 2 million Syrians have been uprooted or are suffering inside the country as the civil war widens – including what peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi called “unprecedented levels of horror” in an address to the U.N. Security Council after at least 65 bodies were found yesterday in a suspected execution-style killing near Aleppo.
A Syrian refugee woman, removes her laundry from the ground at a temporary refugee in Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)
Before the latest donors’ conference, Ban described the international humanitarian response to Syria as “very much limited”.
Ban described the situation in Syria as “catastrophic and getting worse by the day.”
He listed a “cascading catalogue of horrors” facing Syrians, including shortages of food and medicine and abuses such as “sexual violence and arbitrary arrests and detention.”
While international aid channels are open to refugee camps in places such as Turkey and Jordan, there is far more limited capacity to organise relief efforts inside Syria because of the fighting and obstacles from Assad’s regime.
Paris-based Medecins Sans Frontieres said the U.N. and others need to open more routes for aid to reach rebel-held areas, which now receive only a “tiny share” of international humanitarian help”.
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Pretty much a given considering we are in the depths of winter. This weather is normal, predictable and consistent. Have a wonderful day all.
@Marvin Dollery: like that song.. ohh the weather outside is…. weather.
@Marvin Dollery: Given that it is, as you say, predictable isn’t it nice of Met Eireann to share their predictions?
@Marvin Dollery: nobody else is afraid of these stories Marvin, no need to share your coping mechanisms.
@Setanta O’Toole: Except for the kids your lot torment with constant climate change catastrophe dialogue despite it not ever going to happen. Maybe think before posting ridiculous comments.
@Marvin Dollery: never talked to anyone about climate change in my life Marv, you are just projecting.
@Marvin Dollery: mystic Marvin and the old Moore’s almanac all rolled into one
@Pork Hunt: if his climate change predictions are anything like his election ones, we better brace for an imminent apocalypse.
Hopefully in the new year we will be allowed to comment on the stories that matter, like long con vid article.
@087 bed: I know someone who died of long covid recently, so it’s not a con you gimp
@Freda Peeple: Another insightful input from you, always one like you “that “knew a fell”, You need to up you’re game in 25.
@087 bed: Wrong, I was at his funeral at the end of November, 39 from Raheny, Google it you pr7ck
@Basildon Joe: Nope completely healthy so I think you should keep your “feelings” separate to facts. The likes of yourself, and that other illiterate monkey hate facts.
@087 bed: or maybe mention the foreign looking Dublin bus driver who flattened an eight year old lad with a clatter
Happy new year new zealand
What a shock. Winter weather in Ireland. In the winter
@Marc Power: A comment like yours. What a shock.
The UN must begin the legal process to expel the US from it’s structures, and following a vote, to subsequently assemble an international military force to expel the Nazi Zionist regime from Palestine, Lebanon and Syria.
@Denis Harkin: Yes very hard to think of a happy new year with the US killing children in Gaza.
Is it still ok to hate the weather?
How many newborns in Ireland tomorrow, will be Irish, I ponder
@Liam Boyne: Considering they’re born in Ireland, I’d say100%….?
@Athena: I think you missed completely what I was implying
And still no response from the journal as to what good are them unlicensed Joe brollies are in their pic accompanying the story to people in the wind n rain apart from been a nuisance to other footpaths users where the spokes can take one’s eye out
I hope to see mass deportation of several families, in the new year
This year has thrown everything at us weather wise, bring it on..
@Jamie Hinch: Weren’t you on here saying the last bout of windy weather was akin to a hurricane? It didn’t lift as much as a lid of a bin here in an area that was said to be most affected.
@Marvin Dollery: Houses lost their roofs in City and surrounds duringthat storm/hurricane. That was not just windy that night FYI.
@Jamie Hinch: It was a windy night, also called a storm. Magnitudes different to a hurricane.
Hopefully, Israel will flatten Palestine for good
Lovely day here in Gstaad.
Should really restrict hospital visits and take measures to reduce spread of flu and Covid.
In 2025, that disgusting Hamas flag, needs to be removed from Leinster House, it’s a pity that this country has absolutely no opposition in the Dail, so depressing
Some ar*ehole of a country weatherwise
@Tim Brennan: and politically
Jeez Kerry and Cork really get the worst weather
Looks like the little coksucker Brenny mobilised all his multiple accounts to thumbs up to generate favour because his bosses said so, what a rag The Journal.ie is, a lefty rag, nobody take it seriously
Will Brenny be bringing out his Michael Collins account tonight lol
have your say