Geneva - The UN is appealing for $35 million to provide food, shelter and medical care to 200,000 people in El Salvador, where more than 700 people died in an earthquake this month, a UN spokesman said.
Nearly 75,000 homes were destroyed and 856 public buildings damaged in the quake, estimated to have caused more than $1 billion worth of destruction, he told a news briefing in Geneva. The UN inter-agency appeal was launched formally in San Salvador at a press conference given by the nation's economy minister and the heads of UN agencies there.
The initial funds from donor countries should help meet the needs of 200,000 people for the next six months, according to a UN spokesman.