New Zealand offers more funding to help Syrian refugees

New Zealand is to give another 1 million NZ dollars (690,800 U.S. dollars) to help Syrian people affected by the civil war, including those in Aleppo, Foreign Minister Murray McCully said Friday.

The money would go to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which had been helping evacuate civilians from Aleppo, McCully said in a statement.

"New Zealanders are appalled at the ongoing death and destruction in Syria and the conditions on the ground in besieged areas such as east Aleppo," McCully said.

"During our time on the United Nations Security Council, New Zealand has actively pushed for greater humanitarian access and a political resolution to the Syrian crisis, and it was a key focus of our presidency of the council in September," he said.

The latest funding brings New Zealand's total assistance to those affected by the conflicts in Iraq and Syria to more than 26 million NZ dollars (17.9 million U.S. dollars) since 2012, he said.

source: Xinhua