Syrians need 'way more' than pledged relief funds, ICRC says

BEIRUT — War-weary Syrians are in such dire straits that they require "way more than what is possible today," the International Committee of the Red Cross's regional chief said on Thursday as a fundraiser raked in only half the targeted amount.

Humanitarian needs are higher than ever, with the legacy of destruction of the 12-year war compounded by an economic crisis that has sent the Syrian pound tumbling and pushed virtually the entire country below the poverty line.

"I think if we focus on the Syrian people, their situation requires way more ... than what is possible today," ICRC regional director Fabrizio Carboni said from Brussels.

UN agencies asked donor countries gathering in Brussels this week for $11.1 billion over the next year both for Syrians at home and those who fled to neighboring countries.

A total of $5 billion was pledged in grants for 2023 and another $1 billion for 2024 and beyond.

More than 6 million Syrians are displaced in their own country and 5.5 million Syrian refugees live in neighboring Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq as well as Egypt.

Agencies have already slashed support due to funding constraints. The World Food Programme said this week it would cut food aid to 2.5 million of the 5.5 million people it was helping in Syria, even with malnutrition rates "at an all-time high."

Last year, the UN had asked for around $10.5 billion but the pledge amounted to $4.3 billion for the following year, with only half the pledges actually being fulfilled, according to the UN's financial tracking service.

Donors scraped together an additional $1 billion in emergency relief funds following the devastating February earthquake that killed thousands in Syria.

The United States and the European Union carried out temporary sanctions relief measures to help earthquake-related humanitarian operations. They are set to expire in August, and Carboni said they needed to be extended.

"When we had these exemptions, we clearly saw the difference in our work - it's faster, more efficient, [and] costing less. So it means something," he said.

But trying to provide humanitarian help in Syria was "frustrating" without a political solution to resolve the protracted crisis.

What started as peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad's rule in Syria in 2011 spiraled into a multi-sided conflict sucking in Russia, Iran, Turkey and other countries.

"Fundamentally, humanitarian action doesn't solve political crisis, conflict, violence. It's only politics, who can do that," Carboni said, adding: "We know that the solution is a political solution and that it's desperately needed."