The United States and Kuwait pledged to give millions of US dollars to aid Syrians and refugees affected by the growing humanitarian crisis in the region, leaders said at a donors conference in Kuwait Wednesday.

US Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Wednesday at the Second International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria that the United States would give 380 million US dollars in humanitarian aid to Syria in effort to help the international conference raise 6.5 billion US dollars, bringing the total US humanitarian aid to the victims of the conflict to 1.7 billion dollars.


Meanwhile, Kuwaiti Amir Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jabar al-Sabah said that his country is raising half a billion dollars, pointing out that the gulf country had already given 430 million US dollars.

During the conference, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon reported that half of Syria's population needs urgent aid, stressing to participants to fulfill their commitments.

"Half of the total population of the Syrian people, nearly 9.3 million individuals urgently need humanitarian aid," the secretary- general said, adding that more than three million people have fled the country and the crisis is worsening.