Thousands flee Aleppo, billions in aid promised

Syrian government forces and allied fighters seized the town of Ataman near Deraa city on Friday, media reports said, building on gains made last week in the southern province. Meanwhile, donations are pouring in, according to reports. 

With Russia’s intervention on its side in September, Damascus and its allies have pressed assaults throughout the west of the country, including Aleppo in the north. 

Meanwhile, donor nations pledged on Thursday to give $11 billion in aid to Syrians by 2020 as world leaders tried to tackle the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, while Turkey reported a new exodus of tens of thousands fleeing air strikes. 

With Syria’s five-year-old civil war raging and another attempt at peace negotiations called off in Geneva after just a few days, the conference in London sought to address the needs of some 6 million people displaced within Syria and more than 4 million in other countries. 

Underlining the desperate situation in Syria, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the meeting that up to 70,000 Syrians were on the move towards his country to escape aerial bombardments on the city of Aleppo. 

Turkey is already hosting more than 2.5 million Syrian refugees. British Prime Minister David Cameron said donors had pledged a total of $6 billion for Syrians for 2016, and a further $5 billion to be spent by 2020, describing the total as the largest amount ever raised in a single day for a humanitarian crisis.