By Valerie Amos
Valerie Amos is U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.
As I prepare to leave the United Nations at the end of May, I am haunted by the crisis that has defined my tenure: the breathtakingly savage war in Syria, now in its fifth year.
At last month’s pledging conference in Kuwait, many countries promised millions of dollars for aid to Syrians in need. We are grateful for these funds, which mean humanitarian agencies can continue to deliver life-saving food, water, shelter and health care. But I still cannot believe that the world has looked on as this crisis and its devastating human consequences have unfolded. More than 220,000 people have been killed and about 8 million displaced.