UK: Merkel announces €2.3 billion aid package for Syrian crisis

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that Germany was pledging a package of aid funds totalling €2.3 billion ($2.6 billion) dedicated to alleviating the humanitarian crisis in Syria, a fundraising conference for the Syrian refugee crisis in London, Thursday.
"All in all Germany will make 2.3 billion [euros] available, we will start with that this year and I think the dual message of today is very important: first of all in 2016, we will have the money for the important things but the projects can be continued," said Merkel to attendees at the fundraising conference.
"That obviously does not replace the political process, which needs to be reinforced for the future and we call upon all people involved, we call upon the Assad regime and the others to come to a point that we don't create more misery, that we don't cause more people to flee the country, but that we have a political process underway," the German Chancellor continued.
Leaders and representatives from 70 different countries are attending the global fundraising conference taking place at the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre in Parliament Square, London, hoping to raise billions to slow the influx of Syrian refugees into Europe and to help those displaced by the war.