$7bn humanitarian appeal made by UN to assist refugees

NEW YORK: The UN is making a $7.7 billion humanitarian funding appeal to help more than 22 million people affected by Syria’s civil war, now in its sixth year.
The UN says the funds are needed for an estimated 4.7 million Syrian refugees expected to be living in neighboring countries by the end of 2016, and another 4 million people in communities hosting them. Help is also needed for 13.5 billion people inside Syria.
Along with basic needs like food and medicine, the 2016 plan for Syrian refugees includes investing in education and vocational training.
The UN said Syria remains the world’s largest protection crisis, with an estimated 250,000 people killed and 1.2 million injured since the civil war began in 2010.
UN education envoy Gordon Brown appealed on Tuesday for $500 million to allow half the two million Syrian children who are refugees in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan to go to school and offer their families an alternative to fleeing to Europe.
The former British prime minister said the aim was then to get all two million refugee children in school in 2017.
Meanwhile, Syrian troops and allied militiamen on Wednesday expanded their area of control around a major insurgent stronghold in the northwestern province of Latakia, a day after seizing a key rebel-held town in the region, the government and opposition activists said.
The insurgents in the opposition-held area known as Jabal Al-Akrad were collapsing after the key town of Salma fell to government loyalists late Tuesday. Salma’s fall marked one of the most significant military achievements by the Syrian military since Russia began airstrikes in the country last September to shore up President Bashar Assad’s forces.
On Wednesday, government troops seized the villages of Mrouniyah and Marj Kawkah near Salma as they continued their advances in the region, aided by intense Russian airstrikes.