The Belgian Government will send an additional €2 million in aid to Syria following last month's earthquakes, Belga News Agency reports. The natural disasters have resulted in "500,000 (Syrians) being displaced," according to Belgium's Minister of Development Cooperation Caroline Gennez.
The Minister revealed on Monday that Belgium's aid would go towards various humanitarian projects currently being carried out in Syria; many of these the European Union has long-standing partnerships with. These projects seek to provide housing, sanitary facilities, as well as medical care to the Syrian victims of the natural disaster.
The subject of sending aid to Syria had proven difficult given the country's ongoing civil war, with Belgium choosing only to allocate €4 million to the Syria Cross-Border Humanitarian Fund which the UN is in charge of. The fund provides aid and resources to rebel areas in Syria across the Turkish border.
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But given the limited scope of aid offered via the fund, calls were renewed for additional resources to be sent to Syria, which had over 7,000 fatalities in the earthquakes.
Belgium's additional funding was announced at an International Donors' Conference being held in Brussels on Monday to raise further aid for Syria and Turkey.
