UNITED NATIONS (CMC) – Outgoing United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is calling on the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to fulfil its moral obligation towards helping Haiti recover from the battering it took when Hurricane Matthew ploughed through the French-speaking Caribbean Community (Caricom) country earlier this month.

Briefing the UNGA on the humanitarian situation in Haiti, Ban, who paid a visit to the country last weekend, underlined the urgency of additional resources to help respond to the dire needs on the Caricom country.

“People who before had little, now have nothing. No homes. No crops. No livestock and no livelihoods,” Ban told the UNGA on Thursday. “Access to the hardest-hit areas is difficult. People are in desperate need of food, water and shelter,” he added, recalling his visit to Les Cayes, one of the most-affected areas where the hurricane made landfall on October 4.

The UN has launched a US$120-million “flash appeal” to fund its humanitarian response in the aftermath of the disaster.

The UN said a large part of the request (US$56 million) focused on providing emergency food, nutrition and agriculture to the people of Haiti.

But Ban said 10 days after the launch, the appeal is only 22 per cent funded, stressing that funding is required to step up response in the fight against cholera in the country.

The UN said efforts to address this water-borne disease were also severely affected after Hurricane Matthew hit.

“Last Friday, Deputy secretary general Jan Eliasson briefed the member states on our efforts,” Ban reminded delegations on adding that the organisation is also developing a proposal to bring assistance to those most directly affected by cholera.

He said he would present this plan to the assembly in due course, as he appealed to all member states to respond with the financial support needed on both these tracks to ensure success.

“We must fulfil our moral duty to the people of Haiti,” he added.