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Over 120 UN agencies, NGOs call for end to Syrian crisis

Thursday, 21 January 2016 8:15 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 21 January 2016 8:16 AM ]

A Syrian child stands at his house in the militant-held town of Beit Nayem on the Damascus outskirts, Jan. 13, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Over 120 UN agencies and other non-governmental organizations have urged people around the world to join an appeal for an end to the plight of millions in war-torn Syria.

"In the name of our shared humanity... for the sake of the millions of innocents who have already suffered so much, and for the millions more whose lives and futures hang in the balance, we call for action now," read the appeal, published on Thursday.

“Today, some 13.5 million people inside Syria need humanitarian assistance. That is not simply a statistic. These are 13.5 million individual human beings whose lives and futures are in jeopardy,” it said.

The new chairman of the UN refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, together with the heads of the UN agencies for food, children and humanitarian action were among the 120 signatories of the appeal.

They noted that in early 2013, many of the same agencies and organizations had urged the international community to end the crisis in Syria.

"That was three years ago. Now the war is approaching its sixth brutal year," they lamented, adding, "The bloodshed continues. The suffering deepens."

Syrian women wait in line to receive aid at a refugee camp in Mafraq, Jordan, January 20, 2016. (Photo by AP)

The appeal came ahead of a new round of peace negotiations on Syria due to kick off on January 25 in the Swiss city of Geneva.

The Syrian government has said it would attend the negotiations but asked to be provided with a list of the terrorist groups barred from the meeting and those due to join the talks.

Syria has been gripped by a foreign-backed militancy since March 2011.

The conflict has reportedly claimed the lives of over 260,000 people and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or out of its borders.

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