{"id":188836,"date":"2017-07-14T10:30:56","date_gmt":"2017-07-14T10:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/un-asks-countries-to-shift-40-mn-to-haiti-cholera-fund\/"},"modified":"2017-07-14T10:30:56","modified_gmt":"2017-07-14T10:30:56","slug":"un-asks-countries-to-shift-40-mn-to-haiti-cholera-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/un-asks-countries-to-shift-40-mn-to-haiti-cholera-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"UN asks countries to shift $40 mn to Haiti cholera fund"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The United Nations said Thursday it will ask countries to voluntarily hand over $40.5 million remaining from the budget of the soon-to-close mission in Haiti to help victims of cholera there.\n <\/p>\n

The General Assembly adopted a resolution endorsing a proposal from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who is facing a major shortfall in the $400 million needed to help Haiti recover from the epidemic.<\/p>\n

Haiti has been in the grips of a raging, years-long cholera epidemic that has claimed some 9,500 lives, after infected UN peacekeepers from Nepal introduced cholera. The peacekeepers were sent to Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake. <\/p>\n

Former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon was forced to apologize to the Haitian people for the cholera outbreak, but the United Nations insists it is not liable for the damage. <\/p>\n

The UN mission in Haiti known as MINUSTAH will shut down in October, ending a 13-year operation that fell out of favor with Haitians. <\/p>\n

Guterres will ask all contributors to the peacekeeping budget<\/a> to notify him within 60 days whether they will are willing to shift their share of the unspent money to the cholera fund.<\/p>\n

The United States, the biggest financial contributor to UN peacekeeping, last month announced that it will be taking back its share of the unspent budget and will not be making a contribution to the fund.<\/p>\n

US Deputy Ambassador Michele Sison said Washington has already provided $100 million to help Haiti respond to the cholera outbreak<\/a> and that “the United States is not in a position to contribute in this way.”<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump’s administration is seeking deep cuts to its funding for the United Nations and its peacekeeping missions.<\/p>\n

Addressing the assembly, Jamaica’s Ambassador Courtenay Rattray said the United Nations must not “turn a blind eye” to Haiti’s cholera<\/a> crisis “which stands starkly as a stain against the good name of the United Nations.”<\/p>\n

Rattray said the funds from the mission’s budget “would be small relative to the amount required” for the $400 million trust fund but that “every feasible source of funding can make a difference.<\/p>\n

Launched in October last year, the fund has failed to draw contributions. <\/p>\n

Only seven countries have so far contributed\u2014Chile, France, India, Liechtenstein, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Britain\u2014for a total of $2.67 million.<\/p>\n

Canada and Japan have separately granted $8.5 million to help Haiti.\n <\/p>\n

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\n Explore further:<\/b>
\n UN Haiti cholera fund still falls short despite British aid<\/a>\n <\/p>\n