Switzerland pledges CHF68 million in aid for Syria in 2019
The Swiss contribution for this year was announced on Thursday at the third EU-UN conference on Syria held in Brussels.
Of the total, CHF61 million (€53.7 million) will be used to assist people in need in Syria and the region, while CHF7 million will go towards “peace promotion and international law”. The announcement was made during State Secretary Pascale Baeriswyl’s speech at the event.
“One area that deserves immediate attention is the fate of the tens of thousands of detainees and missing persons, as well as their families,” she said.
In total, the European Union has pledged to release €2 billion. In addition, Germany has committed €1.4 billion, the UK €464 million and Austria €9 million. In total $7 billion was pledged at the conference. The UN had estimated that around $9 billion would be needed in 2019.
Contributions had fallen short of expectations at the 2018 conference. “We had asked for $9 billion; the promises totalled $6 billion,” explained the UN representative.
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