Haiti : A cry for help
Haiti : A cry for help
200,000 people may have died in last Tuesday's magnitude 7.0 earthquake in southern Haiti, the leading US general in the country said, according to a BBC report.
A big roar was heard, the power went off and ninety per cent of Haiti's buildings collapsed; the UN building was one of them. Panic followed as dead bodies were all over the place and trapped people were screaming for help. Even though all the dead have not been accounted for and there are still people coming alive out of the rubbles, more than seventy thousand people have already had their burial. At least sixteen UN peacekeepers-eleven Brazilians, three Jordanians, one Chadian and one Argentine- were reported dead on Wednesday afternoon according to CNN.
In the aftermath of the disaster, countries, international organisations and NGO's ran for help. The World Bank promised $100 million in emergency funding for recovery and reconstruction, the European Union nations pledged today more than £320 million, the UN has launched an appeal for $562 million and almost all governments of neighbouring and developed nations are making their offers. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon travelled to Haiti during the weekend and characterised the situation as "one of the worst humanitarian crises in the decade", in his speech at Port-au-Prince on Sunday. Barack Obama and his predecessors George W. Bush and Bill Clinton came together on Saturday and made a united appeal for the victims of Haiti. The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, arrived in Haiti on Saturday to offer her "deep sympathy" to the president and people of the quake-battered country.
But this is not all the US has offered. $100 million in aid along with a coordinated military mission, with an aircraft carrier, a hospital ship, helicopters and 5,000 peacekeeping troops to help the people of Haiti complete the image of the 'good neighbour'. As more US and UN peacekeeping troops are expected to arrive to Haiti, many humanitarian organisations are complaining that the US hyper activity at the Haitian airport is delaying their mission. With the airport being US-blocked, Doctors Without Borders for example could not arrive to Haiti in time to save people from preventable infections. More help is expected to arrive as many people are sleeping homeless on the streets or trying to make it to the airport to escape from the ruins of their country.
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