ABU DHABI // The UAE has agreed to grant Dh44.1 million to United Nations agencies to help victims of the Syrian civil war.
The agreements were signed at the Ministry of International Cooperation and Development headquarters in the presence of Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, the Minister and Head of the National Committee for the Coordination of Foreign Aid.
She said the directives from the UAE President, Sheikh Khalifa, had helped the UAE to attain the status of one of the world’s biggest donors to refugee aid agencies.
The money will help 115,000 victims of the continuing crisis in Syria, 58,000 of whom are children and 30,000 are women.
The first accord involved a grant of Dh18.4 million to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to help refugees in Al Zaatari and Al Azraq camps in Jordan.
The grant is intended to fund health care, the supply of safe water and sanitation.
The UAE also granted the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) Dh25.7 million to provide feeding and healthcare programmes to children under the age of 5 and to pregnant and breastfeeding mothers in Syria.
Rida Omran, the UNHCR’s regional representative in the GCC states, said that medical reports from Syrian doctors showed an increase in malnourished children, which was causing child mortality.
“As the Syrian crisis continues without any solution on the horizon, we have to continue to do everything we can do,” he said.
Dr Ibrahim El Ziq, Unicef representative for the region, said that the money was vitally needed in Syria.
“There is no doubt that the UAE’s support will enable Unicef to ensure that the children who suffer from malnutrition will get the proper treatment in proper health facilities, as well as regular screening to identify malnutrition cases for early intervention, thus saving the lives of thousands of children.”
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