U.N. launches 2015 Syria appeal, focuses on helping refugees' host nations

Kurdish refugee girls from the Syrian town of Kobani play in a refugee camp in the Turkish border town of Suruc, Sanliurfa province November 13, 2014. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The United Nations called on Thursday for more than $8.4 billion (5.37 billion pounds) to help nearly 18 million people in need in Syria, wracked by civil war, and across the region in 2015.

As well as calling for cash for essential humanitarian aid for millions of Syrians inside and outside their homeland, the annual appeal included for the first time development plans to help neighbouring countries hosting Syrian refugees.