EU's Borrell: Syria plunging deeper into crisis

Economic chaos, soaring food prices and the coronavirus pandemic are plunging Syria deeper into crisis as the country's civil war grinds into its tenth year, European Union and United Nations officials said on Tuesday.

They were speaking at an online conference to raise funds to help Syrians who fled their homeland and those who are still there.

The war in Syria has killed more than 400,000 people and sparked a refugee exodus that has destabilized neighbouring countries and impacted Europe.

Around 11 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, and some 9 million don't have enough to eat. More than half of the population have no jobs.

"Humanitarian needs remain huge in Syria and around," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said as he announced that EU institutions would donate 2.3 billion euros (2.6 billion US dollars) for this year and next.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas pledged 1.584 billion euros (1.8 billion US dollars) on Germany's behalf as he, too, warned that the global pandemic was compounding the grim realities of life in war-shattered Syria.

Perhaps wary of the state of coronavirus-ravaged national coffers, the EU and the UN - joint chairs of the conference - underlined that they did not set a fixed pledging target.

The EU has reported that in 2019 donors contributed 8.9 billion euros (10 billion US dollars) in grants to Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The United Nations currently requires about 3.8 billion US dollars for its Syria-related work.

Tuesday's virtual meeting is the eighth Syria pledging conference, and the fourth hosted by the EU, which estimates that it has donated around 20 billion euros (23 billion US dollars) to Syria and the region over the years. Around 60 countries, key UN agencies and others involved in the conflict are expected to take part.

Beyond its economic impact, the coronavirus also forced the conference to be held online. The meetings are usually an important opportunity for officials to discuss thorny issues and resolve problems, but officials worry that the virtual format might reduce this years' conference to a number-crunching exercise.