UN chief calls for more urgent humanitarian aid to hurricane-hit Haiti

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday underlined the urgency of additional resources to help respond to the dire needs of the Haitian people after Hurricane Matthew struck the small island country earlier this month, saying that "We must fulfil our moral duty to the people of Haiti."

The secretary-general made the remarks while briefing on the current humanitarian situation in Haiti, which was devastated by the hurricane, at an informal meeting of the UN General Assembly at a time when the UN appeal for Haiti attracted only a few donors.

"People who before had little, now have nothing," Ban said. "No homes. No crops. No livestock and no livelihoods."

"Access to the hardest hit areas is difficult," he said. "People are in desperate need of food, water and shelter."

The secretary-general, who just returned from a trip to Haiti this week, recalled his visit to Les Cayes, one of the most-affected areas, along with Jeremie, in the southwest of the Carribane country, where the hurricane made landfall on Oct. 4.

Hurricane Matthew killed more than 1,000 people in Haiti, leaving more than 175,000 without homes, and more than a million more struggling to survive in what UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called "absolute devastation."

The UN estimates at least 1.4 million Haitians are now in need of urgent assistance as clean water, food, and medicine are in short supply, and an ongoing cholera epidemic threatens to worsen and spread after dozens of cholera treatment centers were destroyed.

Barely a week after the storm, on Oct. 10, the United Nations launched a flash appeal of nearly 120 million U.S. dollars to fund its humanitarian response in the aftermath of the hurricane disaster. A large part of the request, about 56 million U.S. dollars, focused on providing emergency food, nutrition and agriculture to the people of Haiti.

Other sectors in the appeal included water and sanitation, emergency shelter and non-food items, health, protection, logistics and communication, early recovery and livelihoods, education, and coordination.

However, 10 days since its launch, the appeal is only 22 percent funded, Ban noted.

The UN chief stressed that funding is required to step-up response in the fight against cholera on the island. Efforts to address this water-borne disease were also severely affected after Hurricane Matthew hit.

Appealing to all member states to respond with financial support needed on both these tracks to ensure success, the secretary-general said, "We must fulfil our moral duty to the people of Haiti."

Also on Thursday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that heavy rains in Jeremie may result in a further deterioration of sanitary conditions in the area, which will likely aggravate the health situation there as the UN and its humanitarian partners are continuing humanitarian assistance in the small island country.

Some 90 percent of Jeremie, a major town in the region, was reportedly destroyed. Cholera outbreak was reported in Haiti after the hurricane slammed into the Caribbean country. Endit