United nations: 5m displaced inside Syria

Five million Syrians have been displaced inside the country, a top U.N. official said Monday, noting that international aid to Syrians uprooted by civil war is a “drop in the sea” of what is needed. In addition, 2 million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries, according to U.N. figures. The total figure of about 7 million represents nearly one-third of Syria’s population. The funding shortfall for the displaced remains wide, with donor countries sending less than one-third the money needed, Tarik Kurdi, the U.N. refugee agency’s representative in Syria, told the Associated Press. “Whatever efforts we have exerted and whatever the U.N. has provided in humanitarian aid, it is only a drop in the sea of humanitarian needs in Syria,” Kurdi said. The funding shortfall “is very, very wide.”