Bulgaria Allocates EUR 150 000 for UN Relief in Syria

Bulgaria is to grant EUR 150 000 to the UN Food Program in Syria, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov announced at a donor conference on Syria, held Wednesday in Kuwait.

"The Syrian society is being torn asunder and destroyed by the conflict that has continued into a second year, and it is the responsibility of the international community to alleviate the humanitarian crisis, Mladenov said at the conference, as cited by the press service of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry.

Earlier, it was estimated that to provide for the Humanitarian Response Plan and the Regional Plan for refugees in Syria, EUR 1.5 B would be needed by mid-2013 alone.

The Kuwait conference brought together about 60 donor countries, as well as a number of UN agencies, and was chaired by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Participants included European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva.

"I hope that after this meeting today, we will send a strong signal to the international community that the crisis in Syria needs not only a humanitarian but also a political response", Minister Mladenov said.