(VOVworld) - Ending extreme poverty was essential to save lives and limit the damage from disasters, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said, as figures revealed poorer nations bear the brunt of deaths from earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, storms and heat waves.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

An analysis of more than 7,000 disasters over the past two decades, in which 1.35 million people died, showed 90 percent of those deaths occurred in low and middle-income countries.
Ban called it "a damning indictment of inequality" and warned "hundreds of millions of people" are at risk of rising seas, earthquakes, and climate and weather extremes.