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Haiti quake survivors cry for help as death toll nears 2,000

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(Last Updated On: August 18, 2021)

Survivors of the earthquake that killed at least 1,941 people in Haiti clamored for food, shelter and medical care on Tuesday as search and rescue efforts resumed after a tropical storm lashed the Caribbean nation with rain, causing dangerous flooding.

Quake damage to several major hospitals hampered humanitarian efforts, and doctors in makeshift tents outside battled to save the lives of the many injured, including young children and the elderly. But they could not help them all, Reuters reported. 

“There weren’t enough doctors and now she’s dead,” said Lanette Nuel, sitting listlessly next to her daughter’s body outside the main hospital of Les Cayes, one of the towns worst hit by both the tremor and the storm’s heavy rains and winds.

The 26-year-old deceased woman, herself a mother of two, had been crushed by debris during the magnitude 7.2 quake. Now she lay under a white sheet on the floor.

“We came in yesterday afternoon, she died this morning. I can’t do anything,” her mother said.

Saturday’s quake knocked down tens of thousands of buildings in the poorest country in the Americas, which is still recovering from a temblor 11 years ago that killed over 200,000 people. Aside from the dead, the latest quake also injured at least 9,915, with many people still missing or under the rubble, the civil protection service said on Tuesday afternoon, Reuters reported. 

Relief efforts were already complicated due to political turmoil and difficult road access from the capital to the south due to gang control of key points. Flash flooding and landslides in the wake of Tropical Storm Grace, which by Tuesday afternoon had continued on past Jamaica, exacerbated the situation.

“Countless Haitian families who have lost everything due to the earthquake are now living literally with their feet in the water due to the flooding,” said Bruno Maes, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative in the country.

“Right now, about half a million Haitian children have limited or no access to shelter, safe water, healthcare and nutrition.”

The United Nations said it had allocated $8 million in emergency funds to provide relief for affected people, Reuters reported. 

Latin America countries including Venezuela, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Colombia and the neighboring Dominican Republic sent food, medicine and supplies. The United States also dispatched supplies and search and rescue teams.

Although criminal gangs have been blocking access roads for months, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs said “successful negotiations” had made it possible for a convoy to reach Les Cayes.

The hospital in Les Cayes, about 150 km west of the capital Port-au-Prince, was even more overwhelmed on Tuesday than before as patients who had been camping outside moved indoors to escape the tropical storm.

Director Peterson Gede said medics were doing the best they could. “We couldn’t handle all the patients,” he said. “And we have been receiving supplies, but it’s not enough.”

At a tent city in Les Cayes containing many children and babies, over a hundred people scrambled to repair makeshift coverings made of wooden poles and tarps that were destroyed by Grace overnight. Some took cover under plastic sheets.

Mathieu Jameson, deputy head of the committee formed by the tent city residents, said hundreds of people there were in urgent need of food, shelter and medical care.

“We don’t have a doctor. We don’t have food. Every morning more people are arriving. We have no bathroom, no place to sleep. We need food, we need more umbrellas,” said Jameson, adding the tent city was still waiting for government aid.

Haiti’s latest natural disaster comes just over a month after the country was plunged into political turmoil by the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday it was too early to gauge the impact of the quake on Haiti’s political process and that the United States, the country’s main donor, had no current plans to deploy its military there.

Rescue workers have been digging alongside residents through the rubble in a bid to reach survivors. 

On Tuesday morning 16 people were recovered alive alongside nine dead, Haitian civil protection authorities said.

But hopes were fading, and a smell of dust and decomposing bodies permeated the air, Reuters reported. 

“We came from all over to help: from the north, from Port-au Prince, from everywhere,” said Maria Fleurant, a firefighter from northern Haiti.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was sworn in less then a month ago after Moise’s assassination, vowed to disburse humanitarian aid better than in the wake of the 2010 quake.

Though billions of dollars in aid poured into Haiti after that quake and Hurricane Matthew in 2016, many Haitians say they saw scant benefits from the uncoordinated efforts: government bodies remained weak, amid persistent shortages of food and basic goods.

“The earthquake is a great misfortune that happens to us in the middle of the hurricane season,” Henry told reporters. He said the government would not repeat “the same things” done in 2010.

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MoI registers over 8,700 criminal cases in the past six months

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(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

Abdul Matin Qani, the Ministry of Interior’s spokesman said on Thursday that in the last six months, 8,747 criminal cases have been recorded across the country.

Addressing a press conference in Kabul, Qani said of these cases, 7,233 have been solved while the remaining 1,525 are still being investigated.

He said 12,540 people have been arrested in connection with these crimes.

In addition, 21 kidnappers have been killed, 18 hostages have been freed and 172 people have been arrested in connection with kidnappings in the same period of time.

Qani also said in the last six months 837,000 passports have been distributed. He said three new passport offices will be established in Kabul in the near future.

“10,000 passports are distributed to citizens daily by the Passport Department,” said Qani.

On the issue of narcotics, he said drug cultivation, production and trafficking has been eradicated. He said drug manufacturing equipment and 377 drug factories have been destroyed across the country.

According to him, the ministry has also made advances in collecting illegal weapons, fighting corruption and improving police skills.

Qani stated that during this period, no security incidents took place in most provinces across the country.

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TAPI gas company CEO satisfied with project’s progress

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(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

The minister of mines and petroleum, Shahabuddin Delawar met with the executive director of the TAPI project and the ambassador of Turkmenistan in Kabul on Thursday to discuss progress around the key project.

Murad Amanov, head of the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI) Gas Pipeline project, expressed his satisfaction with the recent progress of the project and talked about the practical roll out of the project.

Delawar said that the preliminary work of TAPI is progressing quickly and that the pipeline will be put into operation in the near future.

TAPI is a natural gas pipeline being developed by the Galkynysh – TAPI Pipeline Company Limited with participation of the Asian Development Bank.

The pipeline will transport natural gas from the Galkynysh Gas Field in Turkmenistan through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to India.

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UK’s Mercer faces 10-day deadline in Afghanistan war crimes inquiry

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(Last Updated On: March 27, 2024)

Johnny Mercer, the former UK Minister for Veterans Affairs, has been given 10 days to reveal the source of allegations that British troops engaged in war crimes in Afghanistan, or face a potential prison sentence.

British media reported on Tuesday that Mercer, following his allegations regarding the killing of Afghan civilians by British forces, was ordered to reveal the sources of his information.

The BBC reported that a public inquiry commissioned by the UK government into the actions of its forces in Afghanistan has directed Mercer to disclose the names of individuals who leaked information to him about alleged war crimes and cover-ups by special forces, or he may face imprisonment.

Although separate investigations have sought to verify these claims, the British government has yet to officially confirm them.

Earlier this month, Mercer, who served in military missions in Afghanistan, told the court that despite the information he possesses, he cannot confirm the killing of Afghan civilians by British forces between 2010 and 2013.

In court, he also stated that the claim British soldiers killed unarmed civilians in their sleep does not contradict his findings, but he admitted reluctance to believe it.

According to Mercer, British forces were allegedly instructed to carry an unregistered weapon — one not associated with NATO forces — to place next to the unarmed Afghan individuals they had killed.

The Islamic Emirate’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says the countries that had troops in Afghanistan for 20 years all committed war crimes.

Mujahid stated that if the investigation carries on, it will be a big step and that the crimes committed should be investigated transparently.

“The crimes that have been committed should be investigated transparently because this was not the work of a few soldiers but a plan that was drawn and crimes were committed in Afghanistan,” he added.

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