UN asks for $US14.5b in aid as Syria catastrophe worsens Life goes on: Children attend a class at Quru Gusik refugee camp on the outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region. The United Nations has launched the biggest aid appeal in its history, calling for more than $US7.3 billion to be dedicated to the crisis in Syria in an attempt to avert what it says is the greatest humanitarian catastrophe of modern times. With no end to Syria's conflict in sight, the UN estimates that three-quarters of the population - millions of whom have been forced to leave their homes or flee the country because of the fighting - will need aid in 2014. The Syria appeal accounts for half the total funding plan of about $US14.5 billion aimed at bringing humanitarian aid to 52 million people in 17 countries, announced by Baroness Valerie Amos, the UN emergency relief co-ordinator. Most Syrians "think the world has forgotten them": Valerie Amos. "This is the largest amount we have ever had to request," Lady Amos said of the worldwide appeal, adding that most Syrians "think the world has forgotten them." In the past 2½ years of conflict, 2.4 million Syrians - more than 10 per cent of the population - have fled to the country's regional neighbours, including Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. As the war has intensified, these countries have had up to 8000 refugees crossing their borders every day. Although the number of new registrations has slowed down, the total is expected to exceed 4 million by the end of 2014. So far, almost half the Syrian population has been left destitute or homeless in the conflict. A similar number does not have sufficient food, according to the World Food Program. David Miliband, chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, said that starvation was now threatening large parts of the Syrian population. With polio on the loose, and a sub-zero winter already here, the people of Syria now face months of more death and despair. We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe that is receiving far too little attention and funding around the world. The conflict in Syria had created the worst displacement crisis since Rwanda's genocide 20 years ago, said Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, calling it the most dangerous situation for global peace and security since World War II. Lady Amos said expectations of what may emerge from a peace conference expected to begin in January were only "modest at this point in time." Telegraph, London, New York Times