Donor nations pledge billions of dollars for Syria

Donor nations have pledged to give billions of dollars in aid to Syrians as world leaders gathered for a conference to tackle the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with Turkey reporting a new exodus of tens of thousands fleeing air strikes.

With Syria’s five-year civil war raging, and another attempt at peace negotiations called off in Geneva after just a few days, the London conference was intended to address the needs of some six million people displaced within Syria and more than four million refugees in other countries.

Underlining the desperate situation on the ground in Syria, Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the meeting that tens of thousands of Syrians were on the move toward his country to escape aerial bombardments on the city of Aleppo.