Donors pledge $6 billion for 2017 at Syria aid conference: EU

International donors today pledged USD 6 billion in aid to Syria for 2017, the EU said, at a conference in Brussels overshadowed by a suspected chemical attack on a rebel town.
"Our conference is sending a powerful message, we are not letting down the people of Syria," EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Christos Stylianides told delegates.
"Delegations present here today have made a collective pledge of USD 6 billion for this year alone," he said to applause at the EU-UN-hosted conference.
"Thank you so much. It is an impressive figure," he added.
Stylianides did not clarify if the funding was new, or if it included some funds previously pledged by the international community for war-torn Syria.

The Brussels meeting is a follow-up to last year's London conference which raised USD 12 billion (10 billion euros) in two equal tranches for humanitarian aid programmes.