BEIRUT -- International donors at a conference in Kuwait pledged $3.8 billion Tuesday to help Syrians affected by their country's civil war, and United Nations officials warned of a fresh wave of mass displacement after Islamic groups took over a major city in the northwest.
The total aid pledge amounted to less than half of what the U.N. requested this year to cope with the growing humanitarian crisis in Syria.
Some 30,000 people fled Idlib in the past week alone, joining some 12 million Syrians who now need humanitarian assistance, including nearly 4 million refugees in neighboring countries.
Officials said Syria's war has triggered the largest displacement crisis in the world. Aid agencies said the money pledged Tuesday was not nearly enough to help keep pace.
"What does the international community expect millions of Syrians to survive on?" asked Andy Baker, who leads Oxfam's response to the Syria crisis. "The collective response risks leaving the nearly 4 million refugees and those trapped in Syria to their fate while neighboring countries face unbearable strain."
But Valerie Amos, the U.N.'s humanitarian chief, expressed gratitude for the aid.
"While we cannot bring peace, this funding will help humanitarian organizations deliver life-saving food, water, shelter, health services and other relief to millions of people in urgent need."
More than a quarter of the total came from two countries: Kuwait, which hosted the third annual conference and pledged half a billion dollars, and the United States, which promised the largest single commitment of $507 million.
The European Commission and European Union member states pledged close to $1.2 billion total, double the overall EU pledge last year.
The U.N. had requested $8.4 billion this year to cope with the crisis in Syria, although no specific target had been set for the Kuwait conference.
Syria's civil war, now in its fifth year, has killed some 220,000 people.
As world representatives announced their pledges during the conference in Kuwait's opulent Bayan Palace, Syrian government forces fired surface-to-surface missiles and unleashed a wave of airstrikes on Idlib, killing more than a dozen people, opposition activists said.
The city was captured by Islamic fighters led by al-Qaida's branch in Syria and the ultra-conservative Ahrar al-Sham group Saturday after four days of shelling and fighting.
Yacoub El Hillo, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Syria, said the fighting has displaced some 30,000 people in the past week.
"I am gravely concerned by the ongoing fighting taking place in Idlib governorate and its possible impact on hundreds of thousands of civilians," he said.
El Hillo added the situation in the city is becoming increasingly dire, with electricity shortages and schools and hospitals closing.
His comments came as activists and residents who fled the city said fighters searched for government supporters.
Farther south, fighters of the Islamic State group killed over 40 people Tuesday, mostly civilians, in an attack on a central Syrian village, opposition activists and Syrian state television reported.
The assault on the government-held village of Mabuja was the latest atrocity by the Sunni extremist group, which last week released a video showing its militants behead eight men said to be Shiite Muslims from Syria's central Hama province.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that Syrians are the victims of the "worst humanitarian crisis of our time," and that he has "only shame and deep anger and frustration at the international community's impotence to stop the war."
He also expressed his "deep anger against Syrian leaders who have been abandoning their own people."
Ban's deputy spokesman said later that it was "extremely impressive that we got as much as $3.8 billion," adding that there had been no target for the Kuwait meeting.
The U.N. said $2.9 billion is needed in 2015 for Syrians inside the country and $5.5 billion for those who have fled to surrounding countries.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power said that despite the U.N. making its largest humanitarian appeal in history, "many countries are giving the same amount, or even less than they have in the past."
Tuesday's U.S. pledge is in addition to nearly $3.2 billion the country has provided since the conflict began, she said.
Information for this article was contributed by Aya Batrawy, Adam Schreck, Bassem Mroue and Cara Anna of The Associated Press.
A Section on 04/01/2015