2023-09-10 14:42:33
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The United Nations special envoy for Syria on Sunday urged donors not to reduce their funding as the war-torn country’s economic crisis worsens.
Syrian President Bashar Assad’s decision last month to double public sector salaries and pensions further fueled inflation and fueled ongoing protests that have rocked the Druze-majority southern province of Sweida and nearby Daraa.
Initially sparked by deepening economic misery, more and more people began calling for Assad’s fall, similar to the 2011 uprising that led to civil war.
The UN estimates that 90% of Syrians in government-controlled areas live in poverty and that more than half of the country’s population struggles to put food on their table.
As the 13-year-old war reached a stalemate, the government regained large swathes of lost territory with the help of its key allies in Russia and Iran in recent years.
And while support from international donors is waning, UN agencies have been cutting programs due to years of budget tightening.
The UN estimates that some 300,000 civilians were killed during the first decade of the uprising, while half of the pre-war population, 23 million, was displaced.
“The situation inside Syria has become even worse than it was economically during the height of the conflict,” UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen told reporters in Damascus following a meeting with the Syrian minister. of Foreign Affairs, Faisal Mekdad.
“We cannot accept that funding for Syria is decreasing while humanitarian needs are increasing,” Pedersen said.
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Chehayeb reported from Beirut, Lebanon.
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