Switzerland has decided to provide an additional CHF5 million ($5.6 million) in winter aid to the victims of the Syrian crisis, the foreign ministry announced on Thursday.
The money will be used to fund winter programmes run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and by the UNHCR in Syria. It will also provide Save the Children in Jordan with material assistance to get through the winter.
Since the conflict began in March 2011, Switzerland has provided CHF55 million francs for the victims of the Syria crisis.
More than 11.5 million people in Syria and the region depend on humanitarian aid – a figure corresponding to more than half of the Syrian population. The number of refugees in neighbouring countries stands at 2.2 million. Some 6.5 million people have been displaced within Syria itself.
«Humanitarian aid is one of three pillars of Switzerland’s Syria policy, with which it aims to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people…The two other pillars are its commitment to a political solution, which includes the hosting of political talks in Geneva through the good offices of Switzerland,» said the foreign ministry in a statement.
At the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council, Switzerland has repeatedly demanded that the UN Security Council refer the case of Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC).