LONDON, Feb 4 (KUNA) -- Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg pledged 10 million Norwegian Kronas (USD 1.17 billion) over the next four years for the unfortunate Syrians - primarily for education and child protection.
"Schools and hospitals must not be attacked, starvation must not be used as a weapon," Soldberg told London's donors conference, Thursday. She added "We must support the victims, the women and girls who will have to rebuild their country when the conflict is over." She also stated that the situation for civilians and Syria's neighboring countries will get worse if the international community "fails to take decisive action now." Earlier today, Solberg, who is also co-chairing Syrian aid conference argued that it is in Europe's self interest to do more to help the Syrians. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's, she said "If we don't invest more in the neighborhood and neighboring countries we will have an even bigger problem than we have today." She added "We have to have a long-term plan for helping those in the area. We can only hope that people see this is both an important humanitarian [task] but also a bit of self interest for a lot of European countries." Solberg urged rich Gulf countries to do more to help. "I hope they all contribute much better than they did last year," she said. "Kuwait has done a great job. They are the country that has given the most money per capita. But we need more countries in the region to dig in." Norway has been among the largest humanitarian contributors to people affected by the Syrian conflict, since its break-out five years ago. (end) nfm