UN makes record $10.3bn appeal for fight against coronavirus

The United Nations is making an appeal for $10.3 billion (£8.2 billion) to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, its largest ever fund-raising call.

The UN says up to 265 million people could face starvation by the end of the year because of the impact of Covid-19.

The money will be for used for low income and fragile countries.

The UN warned that failure to act could undo decades of development. It initially asked for $2 billion in its first coronavirus appeal in March.

The coronavirus pandemic is having a huge impact on the world’s poorest, the BBC’s Imogen Foulkes reports from Geneva.

This revised appeal is a record, but, the UN says, wealthy countries have thrown away the financial rule book to protect their own economies, and must now do the same for poorer nations.

If they do not, the UN warns, the world faces a series of crises, with millions pushed into starvation.

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