United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, left, shakes hands with Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario as they meet reporters in Makati, south of Manila, Philippines on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2013. Ban is urging the international community to ramp up aid for the Philippines’ typhoon reconstruction, saying “we must not allow this to be another forgotten crisis.” (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Ban Ki-moon, Albert del Rosario
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, left, talks beside Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario during a press conference in Makati, south of Manila, Philippines on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2013. Ban expressed grave concern about the deteriorating security situation in South Sudan and demanded an end to violence there. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Ban Ki-moon
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon gestures as he answers questions from reporters in Makati, south of Manila, Philippines on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2013. Ban is urging the international community to ramp up aid for the Philippines’ typhoon reconstruction, saying “we must not allow this to be another forgotten crisis.” (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Philippines Typhoon
Typhoon survivors pray while attending a dawn Mass in anticipation of Christmas in Tacloban, Philippines, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2013. Many Filipinos attend nine consecutive dawn Masses before Christmas as part of traditional practice in this largely Roman Catholic nation. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the international community Sunday to ramp up aid for the Philippines’ typhoon reconstruction, saying “we must not allow this to be another forgotten crisis.”
Ban met with key ambassadors stationed in Manila at the end of his three-day visit and urged donor countries to provide more aid in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the central Philippines on Nov. 8, killing at least 6,100 people and leaving nearly 1,800 others missing. Entire villages were flattened by Haiyan’s ferocious winds and the tsunami-like storm surge that damaged or swept away more than a million homes and injured 27,000 people.
The U.N. is raising $791 million for a yearlong recovery plan. The Philippine government has separately launched an $8.17 billion reconstruction drive over four years.
Ban told reporters that the U.N. stands firmly with the Philippine efforts and leadership in improving preparedness and resilience to natural disasters.
He said he visited the country to show solidarity with the government and Filipinos, and was deeply moved and inspired by his visit Saturday to Tacloban city, one of the hardest-hit by the typhoon.
“People are working hard to recover,” he said. “We must not allow this to be another forgotten crisis.”
Ban urged “all donors to add to their already generous response so that we can help communities to build back better and safer.”
Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said that the typhoon demonstrates the threat of extreme weather patterns that may be the new normal due to climate change.
“The Philippines calls on all nations, rich and poor, to come together to confront this challenge,” del Rosario said, adding that his country will “strongly participate” in Ban’s proposed climate change summit in September next year.
British Ambassador Asif Ahmad, one of the ambassadors who met with Ban, said that the U.N. chief’s visit “was important to retain international and domestic focus on recovery from the typhoon before attention moves on.”
