Hollywood star Angelina Jolie briefed the United Nations Security Council on the Syrian refugee crisis Friday morning.
Jolie, a U.N. special envoy on refugee issues, urged the world to do more to help millions of Syrians displaced by over four years of war.
The U.N. estimates that 3.8 million people have fled Syria and about 7.6 million others are displaced inside the country.
"It is sickening to see thousands of people drowning on the doorstep of the world's wealthiest continent," Jolie said, referring to the spike in migrants from Africa and the Middle East who drown when overcrowded boats sink in an attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea and reach Europe. More than 1,300 migrants have died in the Mediterranean over the past three weeks.
Some 220,000 Syrians have been killed since 2011, when peaceful protests erupted against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but gradually developed into a complex and bloody civil war.
Russia, an ally of Assad's regime, has vetoed U.N. Security Council resolutions that would have sanctioned his government and referred the war to the International Criminal Court.
At the briefing on Friday, Jolie urged the Security Council to "work as one and end the conflict."
U.N. aid chief Valerie Amos also appealed to the council to impose sanctions and an arms embargo in Syria.
"The government, armed and terrorist groups, continue to kill, maim, rape, torture and take Syria to new lows that seemed unimaginable a few years ago," she said. "We need the numbness to the senseless violence and the apparent apathy to end."
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