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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that a trust fund he launched to provide fast and flexible funding for the fight against Ebola has only $100,000 in the bank.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the trust fund is part of a nearly $1 billion U.N. appeal for humanitarian needs in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the three countries hardest-hit by the deadly virus.
Secretary-General Ban urged the international community to respond to the appeal immediately, which he said will enable the United Nations "to get ahead of the curve and meet our target of reducing the rate of transmission by Dec. 1."
The World Health Organization said Thursday that the Ebola death toll will reach more than 4,500 this week, from among 9,000 people infected by the deadly disease. It has projected that there could be between 5,000 and 10,000 new cases a week in early December without urgent action.
Dujarric said donors may choose to give directly to a U.N. agency or a specific country, or they may channel their contribution through the trust fund which will allow the U.N. to allocate the funds where they are most urgently required at the time.
The secretary-general said the trust fund had received about $20 million, but the United Nations later clarified that the $20 million has been pledged, and only $100,000 has actually been received.
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