Japan has pledged $5.5 million to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) to support a new project aimed at improving living conditions in war-torn Syria.
The initiative, formalized on 12 August, will focus on Aleppo and Homs—two of the regions most devastated by years of conflict.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry said the funds will be used to rebuild critical infrastructure in informal settlements, where access to clean water, electricity, sanitation and safe housing remains severely limited.
Japan stressed that ensuring a secure living environment has become an urgent priority, as hundreds of thousands of Syrians who fled during the civil war are now returning. The ministry cited the fragile humanitarian situation and rising need for stability under the caretaker government established after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December last year.
According to UN-Habitat, prolonged conflict combined with the destructive earthquakes that struck Syria and Turkey in February 2023 has left large parts of Aleppo and Homs in ruins. The agency estimates the project will directly benefit more than 81,000 people, while indirectly supporting the wider population of returnees.
By the end of July, more than 746,000 Syrian refugees had returned from neighboring countries, alongside 1.5 million internally displaced people. Before the war, informal settlements accounted for around 40 percent of Syria’s urban population, but today an estimated 16.5 million of the nation’s 23.2 million people remain in need of humanitarian assistance.
Japan has been a consistent donor to recovery efforts in Syria. Since 2022, it has contributed over $21 million to UN-Habitat projects designed to aid vulnerable communities and restore basic services in devastated areas.
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