UN asks countries to shift $40 mln to Haiti cholera fund

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The United Nations said Thursday it will ask countries to voluntarily hand over 40.5 million US dollars remaining from the budget of the soon-to-close mission in Haiti to help victims of cholera in the Caribbean country.

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 US dollars needed to help Haiti recover from the epidemic.

Guterres will ask all contributors to the peacekeeping budget to notify him within 60 days whether they will are willing to shift their share of the unspent money to the cholera fund.

Patients with cholera symptoms receive medical attention at Saint Antoine Hospital of Jeremie, southwestern Haiti, on October 22, 2016. /VCG Photo

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.

US Deputy Ambassador Michele Sison said Washington has already provided 100 million US dollars to help Haiti respond to the cholera outbreak and that "the United States is not in a position to contribute in this way."

President Donald Trump's administration is seeking deep cuts to its funding for the United Nations and its peacekeeping missions.

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 after infected UN peacekeepers introduced cholera.

More than 9,500 people have died. The peacekeepers from Nepal were sent to Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visiting a shelter in the Lycee Phillipe Guerrier in the city of Les Cayes, Haiti, on October 15, 2016. /VCG Photo

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.

Addressing the assembly, Jamaica's Ambassador Courtenay Rattray said the United Nations must not "turn a blind eye" to Haiti's cholera crisis "which stands starkly as a stain against the good name of the United Nations."

(Source: AFP)