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Funds to help 9m people gain access to food, water, sanitation and shelterAS UNITED Nations chief Ban Ki Moon described the "extremely grave" situation faced by nearly half the population in war-torn Syria, donor nations dug deep into their pockets at a conference to raise US$6.迷你倉將軍澳5 billion (S$8.2 billion) in humanitarian aid."When we met a year ago, four million Syrians needed aid... A year later, we face a regional crisis and a humanitarian crisis," Mr Ban told the conference hosted by Kuwait yesterday. More than nine million people are affected by the war in Syria, which has a population of 22 million."The people of Syria need us to prove that the world stands with them now," he added.Other UN officials said reports of starvation at some refugee camps in Syria are troubling.Some 69 countries took part in the one-day conference, whose US$6.5 billion target this year is more than four times last year's target of US$1.5 billion.Kuwait as host led donations by pledging US$500 million while charity groups in Kuwait offered another US$400 million. United States Secretary of State John Kerry announced US$380 million in aid and Saudi Arabia pledged US$250 million. Just past the halfway mark of the conference, US$2.4 billion has been pledged.The money will be used to provide food and drinking water, shelter and sanitation, as well as vaccinations against diseases for Syri倉ns in refugee camps.Giving an update on the humanitarian crisis, UN officials said more than two million people have fled to Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt, straining the resources of the host countries. Nearly seven million have been displaced as a result of the fighting between troops loyal to the government of President Bashar al-Assad and rebel groups.The nearly three-year-old civil war has killed more than 140,000 people, including 48 aid workers.Some of the refugees inside Syria are beyond the reach of relief agencies, according to UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, who blamed "all sides" for blocking aid. "I am deeply troubled with reports of people with no food," said Ms Amos, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.The Washington Post yesterday quoted UN officials and camp residents as saying there has been a growing number of deaths from starvation at a Palestinian refugee camp on the edge of Syrian capital Damascus. The Palestinians and their descendants have lived there for decades.Opening the conference yesterday, the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al Sabah urged the warring parties to consider the Syrian people's safety first.The conference comes ahead of next week's peace talks in Switzerland involving the Syrian government, the rebel coalition as well as the US and Russia, two major players in the crisis.reme@sph.com.sg24小時迷你倉