The United Nations said today it needs almost USD 13 billion to meet some of the world's biggest humanitarian needs in 2014, and almost half of that amount would go to Syria and its surrounding region.

The request is meant to reach 52 million people in 17 countries, and is the largest amount that the UN and its partner agencies have ever asked at the start of the year to meet global humanitarian needs, officials said.

A year ago, the UN's humanitarian request looking ahead to 2013 was for USD 8.5 billion, but Syria's civil war forced them to revise that assessment upward to USD 13.6 billion. The UN and other officials said today that their 2013 request will be only 60 per cent funded.

Such funding gaps will leave many people hungry, lacking shelter and unprotected from violence, said Valeria Amos, the UN's humanitarian chief.

The UN admits that their funding request for 2014 is formidable, "but attainable."



Amos said that Syria's needs are greatest, and even if the nearly three-year-old conflict, which has claimed over 100,000 lives and displaced millions, ends tomorrow, "we would have to maintain help on the humanitarian front."



Besides Syria, where USD 6.5 billion in aid is being sought, the next biggest requests are for USD 1.1 billion for South Sudan, USD 995 million for Sudan, USD 928 million for Somalia, USD 832 million for the Congo, and USD 791 million for the typhoon-hit Philippines.

Other major requests are for USD 591 million in Yemen, USD 406 million for Afghanistan, USD 390 million in the occupied Palestinian territories, USD 247 million for Central African Republic and USD 169 million for Haiti.