World pledges $10B for Syrians, but peace prospects bleak

LONDON (AP) — World leaders pledged more than $10 billion Thursday to help fund schools, shelter, and jobs for refugees from Syria’s civil war, money that British Prime Minister David Cameron said “will save lives, will give hope, will give people the chance of a future.’’

But participants at the aid conference in London acknowledged that prospects for ending the conflict have rarely been worse: Peace talks are suspended, fighting is intensifying, Russia and the West are at odds, and millions of Syrians are suffering from bombardment, homelessness, and hunger.

“The situation in Syria is as close to hell as we are likely to find on this Earth,’’ said United Nations Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon.

US Secretary of State John Kerry was no more upbeat.

“After almost five years of fighting, it’s pretty incredible that as we come here in London in 2016, the situation on the ground is actually worse,’’ he said.

The one-day meeting, held under tight security at a conference center near Parliament, aspired to bring new urgency to the effort to help the 4.6 million Syrians who have sought refuge in neighboring countries including Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Another 6 million people or more are displaced within Syria, and a quarter of a million have been killed.

Previous calls for international donations have come up short, and the five-year war has driven a chaotic exodus of hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees to Europe. Thursday’s pledges are intended to slow that migration, by creating school places and secure jobs for Syrian refugees in the Middle East, and economic support for the overburdened host nations.