By Serife Cetin</p> <p>BRUSSELS (AA) – At the close of a conference on Syria on Thursday, top EU and UN officials announced nearly $7 billion in aid for civilians caught up in Syria’s eight-year bloody civil war. </p> <p>Announcing the aid in Brussels, which hosted the conference, Christos Stylianides, EU commissioner for humanitarian aid, also thanked Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon for showing solidarity with Syrian refugees. </p> <p>Turkey hosts some 3.5 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country in the world.</p> <p>Although humanitarian aid saves lives and alleviates pain, it cannot solve the crisis in Syria, said Mark Lowcock, the UN humanitarian chief.</p> <p>Some €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) of the amount announced today was pledged in 2016 by the EU to help Syrian refugees in Turkey.</p> <p>Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests.</p> <p>Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN officials.</p> <p><br>
- Writing by Beyza Donmez
