Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
MI
Port au Prince (Agenzia Fides) - Global climate change continues to claim victims in the Caribbean island of Haiti. After more than a year of insecurity, fear, hunger, starvation and despair, in these hours Camillian missionaries from Port-au-Prince report floods and landslides after a river in Croix des Missions, on the outskirts of the capital, has overflowed its banks. More than 50 victims have been counted and there are 140 injured and missing and tens of thousands homeless.
Heavy rains hit seven of Haiti's ten departments, forcing thousands of families to flee their homes. In total, more than 37,000 people were affected and nearly 32,000 homes were flooded. The number of people affected is reportedly set to get worse as thousands of families are in dire need of food, drinking water and medicine.
Another earthquake of magnitude 5.5, which was registered on the night of June 6th and which, according to the first estimates, killed four people, injured many people and caused countless collapses, has further aggravated the situation of the population, the missionaries from Jeremie report. The June 6 earthquake was the second in just two days in the region, preceded by a magnitude 4.4 earthquake on June 4. In August 2021, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the same region of southern Haiti
(see Fides, 4/9/2021).
Meanwhile, gang robberies, extrajudicial executions, kidnappings and gender-based violence are part of everyday life in Haiti (see Fides, 22/5/2023), forcing local residents to flee their homes, according to the report of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, published these days. In addition to the gangs, the activities of vigilante groups are also the cause of a large number of lynchings. More than 1,630 people were killed, injured or kidnapped in the first three months of 2023, a 30 percent increase from the previous quarter. It is estimated that almost half of the Haitian population - around 5.2 million people - are in need of humanitarian assistance. (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 12/6/2023)
