United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the pledges made for Syrian humanitarian relief during a donors conference in London, saying the international community has never raised so much money in a single day for a crisis.
Pledges of more than $10 billion in aid were made -- including $6 billion just for 2016 -- as Russian air strikes in Syria intensified and after tentative peace talks in Geneva were put on a "temporary pause."
Conference co-host Britain pledged $1.75 billion in new aid between now and 2020.
The U.S. delegation, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, committed $900 million to bring total U.S. humanitarian spending on Syria to $5.1 billion.
Germany said it would give $2.5 billion through 2018 to help Syrian refugees.
The head of Russia's delegation tweeted on February 3 that it was hard to discuss aid to Syria without the presence of the Syrian government.
The international charity Oxfam criticized Russia and other countries involved in Syria for not helping the victims of conflict, which has killed at least 250,000 people and forced millions to flee the country.
