Monday, the UN humanitarian coordinator made an emergency appeal for $120 million in aid to help Haiti recover from the devastation left in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. Local aid officials are reportedly struggling to distribute food, water and medicine to isolated communities in desperate need.
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“Today in Geneva, we launched a $120 million flash appeal covering the UN system’s needs for the next three months,” declared UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon in a press conference. “Hundreds have died. At least 1.4 million people need assistance at this time; some towns and villages have been almost wiped off the map; crops and food reserves have been destroyed; at least 300 schools have been damaged.”
According to UN News Centre the Flash Appeal, launched by the UN on behalf of the humanitarian community, requests $119,850 to assist people impacted by the Category 4 hurricane that made landfall October 4th.
UNICEF Representative for Haiti, Marc Vincent, warns of the urgency of Haiti’s current condition. “Everyday that goes by increases the threat of cholera. We are in a race against time to get the these children before diseases do,” he said in a press statement.
Cholera, once eradicated from Haiti, was introduced by UN peacekeepers after the 2010 earthquake that killed of 200,000 Haitian citizens, and is a continuing threat to Haiti in the wake of Matthew. The disease has already claimed seven lives in Anse-d’Hainault and another seventeen cases of the disease have been reported in Chardonnieres.