Haiti earthquake: Devastation and more than 2,000 dead
"Haiti: Many questions, few answers one month after Moise killing "The problems in Haiti are somewhat intractable. History there is a nightmare of despotism and mismanagement. What was once the crown jewel of France's colonial empire has been reduced to a basket case. The land on the Dominican side of the border is rich and productive. At one time so was Haiti, but two and a half centuries of environmental destruction have left it largely barren. There's an invitation to failure in even trying to help, and yet we have an obligation as human beings""
Published 8 hours ago
VIDEO - Five days after an earthquake killed more than 2,000 people, many in Haiti are still waiting for help.
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry says his country is "on its knees" after more than 2,000 people were killed in Saturday's powerful earthquake.
Mr Henry said Haiti was "physically and mentally devastated".
More than 12,000 people have been left injured and 332 are still missing after the 7.2-magnitude quake.
There were further tremors late on Wednesday causing many to rush from their places of shelter into the streets.
Hospitals have been struggling to treat the many thousands of injured
Haitian officials estimate there are 600,000 people in need of emergency assistance. The delivery of aid has been further hampered by heavy rains brought this week by Tropical Storm Grace.
The UN Children's Fund (Unicef) says about 500,000 children have limited or no access to shelter, safe water and food.
Unicef also warned that many schools had been destroyed three weeks before they were due to reopen. Children have been out of school for months at a time because of the Covid pandemic combined with security challenges.
"It is so crucial for children who have just gone through this traumatic earthquake-plus-extreme weather experience, to have the normalcy and stability of being in a classroom with their friends and teachers," Unicef Haiti representative Bruno Maes said.
Aid slow to arrive
Anger is growing in many remote areas, where aid has yet to arrive.
"There were a lot of mudslides in the mountains that injured and killed a lot of people. Some are missing and we don't have the means to go find them," a resident of the Maniche area told Agence France Press news agency.
US aid agency USAID said many roads remained impassable.
Aid agencies and rescue workers are also having to contend with armed gangs who have attacked convoys travelling to the worst-hit areas.
But the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday that following negotiations, the gangs had agreed to let aid through.
Little shelter
In the city of Les Cayes, one of the areas worst affected by the quake, many survivors are sleeping in make-shift tents on the city's football field.
The football stadium in Les Cayes turned into a muddy field after the heavy rains
The earthquake compounds problems facing the impoverished nation, which is already reeling from a political crisis following the assassination of its president last month .. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-57762246 .
Haiti has been hit by a series of natural disasters in the past, including Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
The deadliest was the 2010 earthquake which killed more than 200,000 people and caused extensive damage to the country's infrastructure and economy.
He Guarded Haiti’s Slain President. And He Was a Suspect in a Drug Inquiry.
"Haiti: Many questions, few answers one month after Moise killing"
[...]
The sprawling drug case not only involves Mr. Hérard, but also judges and the brother-in-law of a former Haitian president. Officials say the staggering quantity of drugs spirited away by officials illustrates the extent to which Haiti has become a narco-state — with Haitian politicians, members of the judiciary and even American officials in the D.E.A. enabling corruption for years.
[...]
When Mr. McNichols and a second former D.E.A. agent, George Greco, first arrived in Haiti in 2014, they said they noticed as much as $1.2 million in irregular expenses that appeared to enable a senior D.E.A. official to receive fraudulent reimbursements.
Witnesses had also reported seeing the senior D.E.A. official meeting several times with Mr. Saint-Rémy in private, raising concerns that the official was tipping off Mr. Saint-Rémy about D.E.A. operations, according to Mr. McNichols and an affidavit by an F.B.I. agent. The D.E.A. prohibits agents from meeting alone with suspected drug traffickers, to prevent bribery and collusion.
A D.E.A. spokeswoman declined to comment on the allegations.
Mr. McNichols said he reported the suspicious payments and meetings, only to be reprimanded by his superiors within the D.E.A. for pressing the matter.
Van Williams, another United Nations anti-narcotics supervisor based in Haiti at the time, agreed.
“There was very little importance placed on the docks, which I found very strange,” Mr. Williams said. “Corruption in Haiti from the top on down is so rampant.”
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