12/11/2013 18:49
Typhoon Haiyan: UN launches $301m Philippines aid appeal
The UN has launched an appeal for $301m (£190m) to help relief efforts in typhoon-hit areas of the Philippines, the BBC reported.
At least 10,000 people are feared to have been killed by Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the central Philippines on Friday.
The UN says more than 11 million people are believed to have been affected by the storm, and some 673,000 displaced.
Several countries have deployed ships to help the relief effort, but bad weather is hampering aid distribution.
The BBC's Jonathan Head, in the badly-hit city of Tacloban on Leyte island, says the main road from the airport to the city is clogged with refugees and debris, and that residents are becoming angry at the lack of progress and increasing breakdown in security.
Valerie Amos, the UN's Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, has arrived in Manila to head the aid operation.
She told the BBC the storm had been far worse than expected, and that people in the affected regions were "absolutely desperate."
"They need food, they need water, they need shelter. People need to be protected," she said.
Helicopters were also in urgent need to help with assessing the damage, she said.
Baroness Amos told reporters the UN would work alongside the Philippine government, and that efforts would focus on "food, health, sanitation, shelter, debris removal and also protection of the most vulnerable."
"I very much hope our donors will be generous," she said.