UN calls for $150m for urgent relief in Syria

A UN official in Syria says aid groups need $150 million to provide urgent relief to a quarter-million people recently displaced by separate offensives by the Syrian government outside Damascus and by Turkish-led forces in the north.

UN coordinator Ali al-Za’atari says at least 80,000 people have fled the government’s offensive in the eastern Ghouta suburbs, where shelling and airstrikes have killed hundreds of people in recent weeks. He says 50,000 are still living in shelters, with many requiring medical care.

He says another 180,000 displaced Syrians are in need in the northern town of Tel Rifaat, after Turkish forces seized the Kurdish-controlled town of Afrin.

This morning, he told reporters in Damascus that “finance is coming, but is still beneath the required level.”

— AP