UN humanitarian chief urges funds for Syrian refugees in Turkey

PanARMENIAN.Net - UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos urges to seek funds for the Syrian refugees in Turkey, who had fled Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, from Islamic State (IS) fighters.

“Nearly 200,000 civilians fled Ayn Al-Arab into Turkey in a matter of weeks and the Turkish authorities responded immediately,” Amos stated Monday, Oct 20, urging other parties to join efforts to help the refugees, RIA Novosti reported.

The UN says 900,000 Syrian refugees are registered in Turkey and the actual number is estimated at 1.6 million.

Dwelling on Lebanon and Jordan, Amos said that “over three million have fled and are seeking shelter in neighboring countries – 1.1 million are registered in Lebanon where one third of the population is made up of Syrian refugees. 619,000 are registered in Jordan, but the actual number is much higher.”

Amos, who is also the UN's Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, referred to her visit to Yibo transit camp in Suruc, where 5,000 people are currently seeking shelter, recounting that she “met a woman, who had fled Homs to Kobani and had to flee again to Suruc.”

For the past several weeks Kobani, one of the largest towns in the Kurdish region of Syria bordering on Turkey, has been under attack of the IS militants.

The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq and declared an Islamic caliphate on the territories under its control.

A U.S.-led international coalition is currently carrying out airstrikes against Islamic State positions in both countries.