The financial assistance will allow to execute the Humanitarian Response Plan for these three countries that make up the Northern Triangle of Central America, in operation since last month and designed to aid as many as 4.3 million most needy and vulnerable through December 2022.

These three nations suffer great hardships worsened by poverty, recurrent climatic phenomena, chronic violence, limited access to health services and migratory flows from their territories, explained participants in an OCHA´s virtual event.

The Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Ramesh Rajasingham explained that although they have been working for years to ease these issues, the Covid-19 pandemic and Hurricanes Eta and Iota, which hit in November 2020, those in need of assistance increased by 60%.

When speaking at the virtual meeting, the Guatemalan ambassador to UN Luis Antonio Lam said that the Humanitarian Response Plan focuses on damage caused by Iota and Eta hurricanes, drought affecting food safety and migration.

The top priority is to guarantee food safety by recovering livelihoods of affected people, in addition to rehabilitating agricultural, livestock and fishing sectors, said Laurent Thomas, Deputy Director-General at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

pgh/Pll/oda / crc