Denmark to give 2 mn euros for Syria refugees

Denmark will free up another two million euros to help provide aid to Syrian refugees and displaced people as a civil war rages in their homeland, Danish public television DR reported Saturday. Out of the 15 million kroner (two million euros), 13 million will go to the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) and two million to the Danish crisis agency, which sends personnel and equipment to Syrian refugees in Jordan. "It is a very hard and frightening conflict," Christian Friis Bach, the country's development cooperation minister said on television. "The money will go towards the construction of a camp, sanitation and tents, food and administration, which are the most pressing needs," he said. The extra two million euros worth of aid takes Denmark's total contribution to the humanitarian effort in Syria to 10 million euros. On Friday Sweden announced that it was donating another 25 million kronor (nearly three million euros) for Syria via the UNHCR. The United Nations estimates there are 1.2 million displaced people sheltering in public buildings in Syria. Many more sought refuge with family and friends to escape cities where President Bashar Assad's forces are battling opposition rebels. As of Tuesday, some 221,000 Syrian refugees were reported living outside the country, but the flood of people leaving Syria has picked in the last few weeks as fighting has intensified. Some 2.5 million people have been affected by the 17-month-old conflict and a U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimate made in June said three million people are "food insecure". The Daily Star