U.N. agencies: Syria aid needs ‘largely unanswered’

The directors of five United Nations agencies that provide humanitarian aid to Syria say their appeal for $6.5 billion in emergency funding for 2014 has been mostly ignored.

With only $1.2 billion pledged, the agency heads are renewing their December appeal and emphasizing that the humanitarian situation is deteriorating by the day as the 3-year-old civil war escalates in many areas.

The December appeal “has gone largely unanswered” for a crisis affecting 9.3 million people, said a joint statement Wednesday by U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, UNICEF director Anthony Lake, U.N. refugee commissioner António Guterres, World Food Program director Ertharin Cousin and World Health Organization director Dr. Margaret Chan.

They say “the worst days seem yet to come” for civilians remaining in Aleppo, Homs, and other areas with heavy fighting.