More than 1,200 people have died in Haiti after the earthquake

More than 1,200 people have died in Haiti after the earthquake

Special Desk :    |    ০২:৫৪ পিএম, ২০২১-০৮-১৬

Aid should be able to enter gang-held territory by way of a "humanitarian corridor," according to the UN

As authorities raced to bring doctors to the worst-hit areas before a major storm hits, Haiti's hospitals were flooded on Sunday by injured residents from an earthquake that had killed at least 1,297 people the day before.

In a Caribbean nation recovering from another major quake 11 years ago, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Saturday ravaged thousands of homes and buildings. The nation also endured the assassination of its president last month.

Most of the damage was concentrated in and around the town of Les Cayes in southwestern Haiti. The Civil Protection Agency in Haiti stated that 1,297 people had been killed in the disaster and that the hospitals that were still operating were struggling to cope with the injuries sustained by nearly 6,000 people.

Meanwhile, in Jeremie, a city in the northwest that was also badly damaged, injured patients were treated on hospital stretchers under trees and on mattresses beside the road as all of the medical facilities were overloaded.

Haiti's Civil Protection Agency head, Jerry Chandler, told Reuters, "we have a very serious problem.".

According to him, "there are many very important facilities that are not functioning, while those that are working are receiving overflowing numbers of patients."

An escalating number of challenges have faced Haiti: the Coronavirus pandemic, severe economic slowdown, vicious gang violence, and the political crisis that has engulfed the nation ever since President Jovenel Moise was assassinated on July 7.

In addition to the destruction of churches, hotels, and hospitals, the violent shudders that shook Haiti ripped open walls of a prison. According to the civil protection agency, 13,694 houses were destroyed, suggesting the numbers may rise.

Rescuers pulled bodies from the wreckage of one building in Les Cayes, a seafront town of some 90,000 people, as a yellow mechanical excavator nearby helped to move rubble.

Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who visited Les Cayes, praised the dignity of the people, even in the face of suffering.

"They are affected but resilient. They fight to survive," he said, thanking international agencies and foreign governments for their support.

Nearby countries, including the Dominican Republic and Mexico, rushed to send desperately needed food and medicines by air and across Haiti's land border. Colombia sent search and rescue personnel.

The United States dispatched vital supplies and deployed a 65-person urban search-and-rescue team with specialized equipment, said Samantha Power, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

From the Vatican, Pope Francis urged the international community to show support swiftly. "May solidarity from everyone lighten the consequences of the tragedy," he told pilgrims and tourists at his Sunday blessing in St. Peter's Square.

However, Haiti's government appealed to aid organizations against setting up makeshift camps and urged them to work through the planning ministry, an apparent attempt to avoid the mistakes made following the devastating 2010 earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people.

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Many Haitians prepared on Sunday to spend a second night sleeping in the open, traumatized by memories of that magnitude 7 quake 11 years ago that struck far closer to the sprawling capital, Port-au-Prince.

At Port-au-Prince airport, international aid workers, doctors and rescue workers boarded flights to Les Cayes. A US Coast Guard helicopter ferried the wounded.

The rescue and aid efforts will be complicated by Tropical Depression Grace, which is expected to lash Haiti with heavy rainfall on Monday. Some 75 to 100 milliliters of rainfall were expected, which may trigger landslides and cause some rivers to flood, Haiti's Civil Protection Agency said.

"We ask the population to remain vigilant," the agency added.

Thousands of people sleeping in the streets would be exposed to the torrential rains amid a rising risk of water-borne diseases, said Chandler, the head of the agency.

The death toll is expected to rise as telephone network has been down in more remote areas. In difficult-to-reach villages many houses were fragile and built on slopes vulnerable to landslides, said Alix Percinthe, from the ActionAid charity.

He said one local leader had informed him there were 47 deaths in his area not yet reported to regional authorities.

Humanitarian corridor

Footage of Saturday's aftermath posted on social media showed residents reaching into narrow openings in piles of fallen masonry to pull shocked and distraught people from the debris of walls and roofs that had crumbled around them.

Access to the worst-hit areas was complicated by a deterioration in law and order that has left key access roads in parts of Haiti in the hands of gangs. In a video posted on social media, one gang leader said the armed groups had declared a truce along the route to Les Cayes.

Chandler said boats and helicopters were being used to bring in aid but the government was working to establish safe access by road. A first convoy of aid had made it through by land to the region of Les Cayes.

The United Nations called for a "humanitarian corridor" to be established so that aid can pass through gang-held territories.

Following Moise's assassination, which authorities have alleged was carried out by a group of largely Colombian mercenaries and Haitian accomplices, Prime Minister Henry said officials would aim to hold elections for a new president as soon as possible.

However, reports this week suggested that the vote initially earmarked for September would not take place until November. The chaos unleashed by Saturday's disaster is likely to make the task of holding prompt elections harder still.

Haiti has long been politically unstable and Haitians have also suffered from problems stemming from international aid efforts and peace-keeping deployments during the past decade.

A sexual misconduct scandal centering on Oxfam International blighted the record of charity workers in Haiti, while a cholera outbreak linked to UN peacekeepers led to thousands of deaths.