OIC Says Syrians Need $70 mln of Humanitarian Aid

At least one million Syrians affected by violence need urgent humanitarian aid worth $70 million, said the head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Saturday.

A joint U.N. and OIC assessment mission that visited Syria has "found that there are... one million people affected by events and in need of an urgent humanitarian program worth $70 million," Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told Agence France Presse.

On March 29, deputy U.N. spokesman Eduardo del Buey said that "the joint analysis of the OIC and U.N. indicates that at least one million Syrians are in need of humanitarian assistance."

Eight U.N. experts and three from the OIC went on government-led visits inside Syria last month.

Ihsanoglu said that the pan-Muslim body and the U.N. are "now preparing a four-point program that includes providing food, medical aid, rehabilitation to those affected by the events especially in rural areas such as farms, and providing assistance to refugees."

The United Nations says that more than 9,000 people have been killed in Syria, where President Bashar Assad's regime has launched a brutal crackdown on protesters calling for his ouster since mid-March, 2011.