Turkish charity launches major winter campaign

The Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) has launched a winter campaign for over two million needy people across 23 countries, the charity's head said Thursday.

Speaking in Istanbul, Bulent Yildirim said it was a comprehensive approach backed by over 300 NGOs from Turkey.

"We are aiming to reach over two million people across 23 countries who are in need of food, blankets, clothing and medical care ahead of cold winter days," he said.

Yildirim said that they would provide heating stoves, boots, winter clothing as well as flour and medicine in countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Palestine, Pakistan and Syria.

"We can help those needy people, especially the Syrians whom we see every day around us. We are their only hope to reach a warm home and food," Yildirim said.

The Syrian civil war has claimed more than 250,000 lives since 2011 and made the country the world's single-largest source of refugees and displaced people.

Some 3.9 million Syrians have become refugees and at least 7.6 million have been internally displaced, UN figures say.

Neighboring Turkey is now the largest refugee-hosting country in the world with more than two million Syrian refugees on its soil.

According to the UN’s aid agency, about 13.5 million people in Syria are now in need of humanitarian assistance and some sort of protection. The new figures mark an increase of 1.2 million in just 10 months, UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien said on Oct. 27.