United Nations apologises to people of Haiti for cholera epidemic

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 1 December 2016 apologised for the first time to the people of Haiti for its role in the 2010 cholera outbreak in the country.
●    As per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the ongoing Haiti cholera outbreak is the worst epidemic of cholera in recent history.
●    The country has been dealing with a cholera outbreak since October 2010, some nine months after it suffered a devastating earthquake.
●    The outbreak began in mid October 2010 in the rural Center Department of Haiti.
●    The outbreak occurred ten months after a powerful earthquake which devastated the nation's capital and southern towns on 12 January 2010.
●    It is widely believed to have been introduced by Nepalese peacekeepers from the UN.
●    The peacekeepers lived on a base that often leaked waste into a river, and the first cholera cases in the country appeared in Haitians who lived nearby.
●    The outbreak has affected an estimated 788000 people and claimed the lives of more than 9000 people in the country.