For over a decade, a civil war has raged in Syria. Since March 2011, the government of Bashar al-Assad has ruthlessly attacked its own people. As result, today the Syrian conflict is the largest and most complex humanitarian crisis of our time. Over 12 million people are displaced within Syria or have fled to neighboring countries and around two-thirds of those who have remained in Syria, about 13.4 million people, need humanitarian aid.
The United States and Italy recently co-hosted a meeting, on the margins of the Ministerial of the Coalition to Defeat ISIS, to discuss the urgent humanitarian crisis in Syria. At issue is the need to deliver more aid faster, “particularly through broadening cross-border assistance, which is essential to reaching millions of Syrians who are in dire need of food, medicine, COVID vaccines, other lifesaving aid,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken. At the same time, Secretary Blinken announced that the United States plans to send more aid to the people of Syria.
“The United States is providing an additional $436 million in assistance – humanitarian assistance – to Syrians and the communities that host them, and that brings the total U.S. humanitarian assistance in response to the crisis in Syria to nearly $13.5 billion. We’ll also use the meeting that’s upcoming to refocus on a path to a political solution in Syria, the only way to provide the Syrian people with a foundation upon which to reconcile, make peace, and begin to rebuild.”
This announcement comes at a critical time for the Syrian people and humanitarian aid organizations.
“We are grateful to our humanitarian partners across the region who continue to respond to this complex crisis under extraordinarily difficult conditions. I encourage other states to join us in providing essential humanitarian assistance to Syrians and their host communities.”
