UN Chief Ban Ki-Moon presses international community for greater support

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has appealed for more aid to help the hundreds of thousands of refugees now displaced by the crisis in Syria.

He visited a camp in Turkey, which holds around 8,500 refugees. But up to 135,000 are thought to have spilled over the border into Turkey to flee the fighting that has torn up their country.

He spoke about his visit to the camp:
“I told them not to lose hope and have courage that the United Nations and the whole international community stand by them. It is simply not right that people are being uprooted from their homes because leaders have not addressed legitimate demands for democracy, justice and equality.”

The UN chief then heads to Ankara for a round of talks with Turkish officials on the Syrian conflict.

Before his visit to Turkey, Ban Ki-Moon also saw a school in a refugee camp in the north of Jordan. He judged current levels of international support as “insufficient”.

In Baghdad on Thursday, he addressed the issue of chemical weapons and levelled a fierce warning at Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad if he used them to oppress the rebellion.

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