- Title: U.N. seeks $119 million for Haiti hurricane victims
- Date: 10th October 2016
- Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (OCTOBER 10, 2016) (REUTERS) UNITED NATIONS BUILDING NEWS CONFERENCE BRIEFING ONGOING UN STAFF AT WORK (SOUNDBITE) (English) OFFICE FOR THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS (OCHA) DIRECTOR IN GENEVA RUDOLPH MULLER SAYING: "The Government of Haiti and the humanitarian country's team flash appeal seeks to provide life-saving assistance and protection to 750,000 people out of 1.4 million people in need over the next three months. To do so, we urgently need to mobilise 119 million U.S. dollars." JOURNALISTS AT WORK (SOUNDBITE) (French) HAITI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N. PIERRE-ANDRE DUNBAR SAYING: "This is not a population which is not on its knees, but on the ground, in front of the atrocity of Hurricane Matthew." JOURNALISTS AND UN STAFF (SOUNDBITE) (French) HAITI AMBASSADOR TO THE UN PIERRE-ANDRE DUNBAR SAYING: "The city of Jeremy, which is an important one, this city has been systematically devastated and 80% of the houses were destroyed, without mentioning houses which were damaged or severely damaged. Crops were also destroyed, which means the country will face a severe famine as the southwestern peninsula is considered as the bread basket of Haiti. So the needs are urgent." JOURNALIST LISTENING JOURNALISTS AT WORK UNITED NATIONS BUILDING
- Embargoed: 25th October 2016 17:57
- Keywords: aid hurricane food houses damage assistance disaster
- Location: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- City: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
- Country: Haiti
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Wind/Hurricane/Typhoons/Tornadoes
- Reuters ID: LVA00153FC5ZB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:The United Nations appealed on Monday (October 10) for $119 million to bring life-saving assistance to 750,000 people in southwestern Haiti, which is reeling from a direct hit by Hurricane Matthew.
The money will go to provide food, clean drinking water and shelter to the most vulnerable among 1.4 million people in need after large areas of crops were destroyed and infrastructure was damaged last week, the U.N. said in the three-month appeal to donors.
"The Government of Haiti and the humanitarian country's team flash appeal seeks to provide life-saving assistance and protection to 750,000 people out of 1.4 million people in need over the next three months. To do so, we urgently need to mobilise 119 million U.S dollars", the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) director in Geneva Rudolph Muller told reporters, during a news briefing.
The U.N. said Hurricane Matthew has triggered the largest humanitarian crisis in Haiti since the 2010 earthquake, at a time when the country is still facing tremendous social and health issues, with an increase in the number of cholera cases, and severe food insecurity and malnutrition.
Haiti started burying some of its dead in mass graves after Hurricane Matthew, a government official said on Sunday (October 11), as cholera spread in the devastated southwest and the death toll from the storm rose to 1,000 people.
"This is not a population on its knees, but on the ground," Pierre-Andre Dunbar, Haiti's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, told a news briefing.
"The city of Jeremy, which is an important one, this city has been systematically devastated and 80% of the houses were destroyed, without mentioning houses which were damaged or severely damaged. Crops were also destroyed, which means the country will face a severe famine as the southwestern peninsula is considered as the bread basket of Haiti. So the needs are urgent", he said.
In the Grande-Anse region on Haiti's western peninsula, some villages and towns suffered 90 percent destruction with low-income housing particularly affected, said Rudolph Muller of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Needs may grow in the days ahead as more areas are reached, he added. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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