DAMASCUS — Seven million Syrians, or nearly one-third of the population, have been displaced by the country's civil war, but international aid to them has been a “drop in the sea” of humanitarian need, a top UN official said Monday. The funding gaps remain wide, with donor countries sending less than one-third the money needed to help those displaced, Tarik Kurdi, the representative of the U.N. refugee agency in Syria, told The Associated Press. Syria's brutal two-and-a-half-year-old conflict has also claimed more than 100,000 lives, including hundreds who — according to the US — were killed in chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian regime near Damascus on Aug. 21. Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's government has denied involvement, instead blaming rebels for the attacks. Neither the US nor the Assad regime has presented proof in public to back up the allegations. In Washington, President Barack Obama was lobbying Congress to support a military strike to punish the Assad regime for its alleged chemical weapons use. Obama initially seemed poised to launch military action without asking Congress, but over the weekend changed his mind. A vote is expected after Congress returns from summer recess Sept. 7. The fighting has displaced 7 million Syrians, including 5 million who fled their homes but are still in Syria and 2 million who crossed into neighboring countries, said Kurdi, the UN official. Before the outbreak of the conflict, Syria had a population of about 23 million people. Kurdi said the need for aid is far greater than what the international community has provided so far. “Whatever efforts we have exerted and whatever the UN has provided in humanitarian aid, it is only a drop in the sea of humanitarian needs in Syria,” he said. The funding gap “is very, very wide,” he added. – AP
