New Zealand sends aid to help Syrian refugees

The New Zealand government is to give almost 800,000 NZ dollars (625,244 U.S. dollars) to help Syrian refugees, which will be matched dollar for dollar by non- government organizations, Foreign Minister Murray McCully said Monday. "New Zealand condemns in the strongest possible terms the on- going violence and the toll it is taking on the people of Syria," McCully said in a statement. "The latest atrocities in Syria are part of a huge humanitarian crisis in which it is estimated over 100,000 people have been killed and 2 million displaced. It has placed a huge burden on Syria's neighbors." The funding would be delivered through six New Zealand-based NGOs, which would match the funding, to help more than 200,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan, McCully said.