UN refugee agency says it has not received funds pledged for Syrian refugees

AMMAN, Jordan – The U.N. refugee agency says it has not yet received the funds recently pledged for Syrian refugees and is struggling to help rising numbers fleeing the country's nearly 2-year-old civil war.

Andrew Harper, the agency's representative to Jordan, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the $1.5 billion pledged last month at an international donor conference in Kuwait "has not come through."

He says the lack of funds is making it very difficult to provide shelter, food, clothing and blankets to thousands of Syrians who daily cross into Jordan.

Jordan says it hosts more than 368,000 of the 787,000 Syrians displaced in the region.

Speaking by telephone from Geneva, Harper says U.N. agencies in Jordan are spending $1 million a day to help the refugees.