DHAKA: Kuwait’s emir Tuesday pledged half a billion dollars at the start of a major donor conference for Syria, describing the crisis unfolding as the ‘biggest humanitarian catastrophe in modern history’.

‘I am pleased to announce the pledging of US$500 million from Kuwait’s government and private sectors to support the humanitarian efforts in Syria,’ Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said, reports The Straits Times.

‘We are meeting here to face the biggest humanitarian catastrophe in the modern history of mankind.’

Speaking at the donors' meet, UN Secretary general Ban Ki Moon said that four out of five Syrians now live in poverty.

‘The Syrian people are victims of the worst humanitarian crisis of our time,’ Ban told the conference, which the UN hopes will raise billions of dollars in aid.

BDST: 1540 HRS, MAR 31, 2015