Donor fatigue persists as nations commit around $8.1 billion for conflict-hit Syrians
International donors meeting in Brussels say they will commit 7.5 billion euros, about $8.1 billion, in both grants and loans to support Syrians battered by war, poverty, and hunger for the rest of this year and beyond
BEIRUT — International donors meeting in Brussels said Monday they will commit 7.5 billion euros ($8.1 billion) in both grants and loans to support Syrians battered by war, poverty, and hunger for the rest of this year and beyond.
The pledges surpassed the modest $4.07 billion that the United Nations had appealed for, but was also a significant drop from amounts pledged last year and previously — an indication of persisting donor fatigue as the world's attention is focused on conflicts elsewhere, including the wars in Ukraine and Sudan, and most recently Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
At last year’s conference, donors pledged $10.3 billion, just months after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey and much of northern Syria, killing over 59,000 people, including 6,000 in Syria.
This year's amount is meant both for Syrians inside the war-torn country and for some 5.7 million Syrian refugees in neighboring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, which struggle with economic crises of their own and have been frustrated by the ever-shrinking aid.
This year's pledged total includes 5 billion euros in grants — about 3.8 billion euros for 2024 and 1.2 billion euros for the next year and beyond — and 2.5 billion euros in loans.
U.N. agencies and international aid organizations in recent years have struggled with shrinking budgets, and humanitarian officials have decried the budget cuts that have forced the downsizing of aid programs despite skyrocketing poverty.
Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011, has killed
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