The UN made an "urgent and critical" appeal Thursday (May 31st) for donations to its main aid budget for Syrian refugees, currently four-fifths short of the total needed for the year, AFP reported.
"The mathematics is straightforward -- we asked for $5.6 billion" for 2018, said Amin Awad, the UN refugee agency's director for the Middle East and North Africa. "We are in May and we have about 20% of it."
UN programmes and government entities that are supporting refugees "are running out of funds", the UN High Commissioner for Refugees official said.
Donors at an April conference in Brussels pledged some $4.4 billion to help civilians affected by the war, but much of that money has yet to arrive, he said.
