During a surprise visit to survey earthquake damage in Haiti on Thursday, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power announced an additional $32 million in assistance for victims.”I am pleased here to announce that USAID will provide an additional $32 million as part of a broader American response to support people here affected by the earthquake,” Power told reporters during an afternoon press conference at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince.A 7.2 magnitude earthquake devastated cities in Haiti’s southwest on Aug. 14. Later that day, U.S. President Joe Biden named Power as the senior administration official to coordinate the American post-quake relief effort.Power told reporters she flew over the hardest-hit towns.”Today we had a chance to witness the impact of the earthquake and the response firsthand,” she said. “First we flew over the affected terrain. And just to see the mountains, the narrow roads, many of which were damaged or blocked with landslides, is to be reminded of the challenge of accessing many, many parts of the affected area.”Power said she had also visited the rural town of Maniche.”We stopped in Maniche and spoke with families who have been devastated by the earthquake,” she said. “According to the mayor of Maniche, of the 9,800 homes in that area, more than 5,000 were destroyed.”Power expressed concern about a “completely flattened” school, whose condition will disrupt education for hundreds of students at the start of the school year. She said she also visited a partially damaged health clinic that was “overwhelmed by need.””The needs we experienced in Maniche are being experienced, as you well know, by many families in this country,” Power said.Earthquake survivors in remote southern towns have criticized the U.S. for paying too much attention to larger cities while their needs remain unattended to.A man stands in the front yard of his home, which was completely destroyed by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Maniche, Haiti, Aug. 19, 2021. (Jean Handy Tibert/VOA)To adjust its relief effort, USAID held an hourlong online discussion with members of the Haitian diaspora in the United States on Wednesday, hearing their complaints and suggestions.Sarah Charles, assistant to the administrator of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, told participants that aid workers were having trouble reaching remote towns in the mountains.”One of the challenges that we have right now — and I think why you’re seeing more of that assistance flow to some of the bigger towns and villages right now — is because … there are some very remote communities, particularly on some of the hillsides, that I think, to be perfectly frank, I don’t think we have reached,” Charles said.Citing security concerns, she added that USAID was relying heavily on barge and air “assets,” including helicopters, to move supplies to the area.”Because of some of that insecurity on the road from Port-au-Prince into Les Cayes in particular, it is impacting, I believe, the speed at which we’re able to get out to some of those smaller villages,” Charles said.During her press conference, Power lauded the Haitian USAID surge staff who took part in the immediate post-quake relief effort in concert with the Haitian Civil Protection first responders.”We have been able to assist or rescue through medevac more than 450 Haitians and, using U.S. government assets, deliver more than 200,000 pounds of vital aid,” Power said.
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center says a tropical depression in the Caribbean Sea is likely to strengthen into a major hurricane that could threaten southern parts the United States on Sunday.
 
In its latest advisory, the center says the tropical depression about 180 kilometers south-southwest of Jamaica is moving to the northwest and is expected to continue in that direction over the next few days.  
 
The storm system has maximum sustained winds of about 55 km/h but forecasters expect it to strengthen into what will be known as Tropical Storm Ida (and then a hurricane) as it moves to the west of Cuba and into the southern Gulf of Mexico.  
 
Forecasters fear dramatic strengthening as the storm moves over the Gulf of Mexico. On her Twitter account, Mississippi State University atmospheric scientist Kim Wood said the storm track will take it over the warmest waters in the gulf.
 
She said the water in the area is about 30 degrees Celsius to a depth of 40 meters. “I don’t have words for that,” she said in the tweet.
 
Such extremely warm waters favor rapid strengthening after Ida enters the gulf Friday.  
 
Forecasters say that while there is still a great deal of uncertainty, the forecast track would take the storm into Louisiana, which was hit hard by three major hurricanes last year. The hurricane center is already warning of a “life-threatening” storm surge when the storm makes landfall and the potential for damaging winds and flooding rain.  
 
Forecasters say the storm track is still coming into focus and could shift in the next several days. They urged concerned citizens in the potential path to continue to watch the storm’s movement.
 
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Vesta Guerrier survived Haiti’s massive earthquake this month, but it flattened her home and she has since been living at a makeshift camp fearing she could be raped at any time. “We’re not safe,” she told Agence France-Presse, echoing the worry of other Haitian women all too aware of the sexual violence that has followed the disaster-plagued nation’s previous calamities.   Home for Guerrier, her husband and three children was a flimsy shelter made of sticks and plastic sheets at a sports center in the hard-hit town of Les Cayes, on the peninsula southwest of the capital Port-au-Prince. Vesta Guerrier, 48, poses for a portrait at a camp for people who lost their homes during the Aug. 14 earthquake, in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 23, 2021.”Anything can happen to us,” said Guerrier, 48, “especially at night. Anybody can enter the camp.”  The 7.2-magnitude quake that struck August 14 killed over 2,200 people but also destroyed or heavily damaged tens of thousands of homes in a nation still recovering from a devastating quake in 2010. After the tremor 11 years ago, which killed over 200,000 people, some survivors spent years in makeshift shelters where victims were assaulted by armed men and gangs of youths who roamed the poorly lit, overcrowded camps after dark. More than 250 cases of rape were recorded in the roughly five months after the 2010 disaster, according to a 2011 Amnesty International report that noted many advocacy groups considered that a small fraction of the true number.  About 200 people were living at the same camp as Guerrier, where privacy is next to impossible. Because of her worries about being attacked, Guerrier does not entirely remove her clothing to bathe and always waits until dark to wash so that others cannot see her. When light does fall on her in the darkness of the camp, she is left wondering if it’s just one of her neighbors, or if it’s “someone who wants to do what he wants to do,” she added. There were no functioning toilets at the site, which makes Guerrier afraid and embarrassed because “people can see you from every direction.” “Only the girls can understand what I’m telling you. We women and the little ones who are here, we suffer a lot,” she said.  A woman and kids rest in the shade at a camp for people who lost their home during the Aug. 14 earthquake in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 23, 2021.Other evacuees at the camp also revealed their fears.  “We are afraid. We are really afraid for our children. We need tents so we can go back to living at home with our families,” said Francise Dorismond, who is three months pregnant.  Another makeshift camp has popped up a short distance away from the main site due to the risks of attacks.  Pastor Milfort Roosevelt said “the most vulnerable” have been placed there.  “We protect the young girls. In the evening, we have set up a security team that patrols throughout the night and ensures that no young men commit violence against these women,” explained the 31-year-old.  In the ruins of a former nightclub destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, dozens of people were taking shelter in a tangle of sheets and tarps strung between walls.  In the middle of this maze, young mother Jasmine Noel tried to make a bed for her 22-day-old baby to sleep in.  “The night of the earthquake, I was going to sleep on the field next door, but they told me that with my baby, it was not right, so they welcomed me here,” Noel said.  “Some people always try to take advantage of these kinds of moments to do wrong,” she said, adding that her suffering makes it feel like she is no longer “really living.” “Our bodies are here, yes, but our souls are not,” said Noel, hoping her mother, a street vendor, would have made enough that day to buy food for them. 
 
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Garry Orelien, the judge named to oversee the investigation into the slaying of Haitian President Jovenel Moise, is being criticized as inexperienced and incapable of handling the case.     Orelien replaces Judge Mathieu Chanlatte, who resigned August 13, citing personal reasons. One of Chanlatte’s assistants died under unclear circumstances the day before his resignation, The Associated Press reported.  Moise was shot to death inside his home in a luxury suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince, in the early morning hours of July 7. His wife, Martine Moise, was injured and later transferred to Florida for treatment.  The Haitian National Police (PNH) has arrested dozens of people in connection with the case, including Haitian Americans, Colombians, members of the president’s security detail and police officers.  Orelien previously worked as a substitute judge in Saint Marc and Croix-des-Bouquets, Le Nouvelliste newspaper reported. He was moved to the Port-au-Prince court in December 2020.  Rockfeller Vincent, Haiti’s minister of justice and public security, tweeted Monday that he was making available all necessary resources to Judge Orelien to move forward with the case. “Let me be clear: All efforts will be made to arrest all individuals implicated in this crime,” he tweeted. Le MJSP a mis à la disposition du Juge d’instruction Gary Orélien tous les moyens nécessaires à la bonne conduite du dossier de l’assassinat du Président Jovenel MOÏSE. Que ceci soit clair : Tous les efforts seront déployés pour arrêter tout individu impliqué dans ce crime. 1/3— Rockfeller Vincent (@RockfellerVinc1) Haitian gang leader holds voodoo ritual for assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moise in Port-Au-Prince, July 27, 2021.In an exclusive interview with VOA Creole Monday, Marie Rosy Auguste Ducéna, a lawyer and human rights activist, alleged that the national police are deeply implicated in the killing.  She mentioned Joseph Felix Badio, a former Haitian Justice Ministry official who has a warrant out for his arrest, as having made at least two phone calls to Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Ducéna told VOA that Badio made the phone calls on the morning that Moise was killed.  “I’d like to underline that there are 647 police officers whose principal mission is to protect the president. We can say they failed, since the president was assassinated,” Ducéna told VOA. “Secondly, there were 63 agents detailed to provide security for the president, and they had backup agents whose responsibility it was to secure the perimeter of the president’s residence. However, they allowed the commandos to gain access to the home. Why? Because they had been paid off.”  The RNDDH report also alleges that PNH Director General Leon Charles received two urgent phone calls from Moise the day of his assassination, but the report says Charles never responded.  VOA Creole’s calls to Henry and Charles requesting comment were not answered.  In Washington, Ricardo Zuniga, U.S. special envoy for the Northern Triangle at the State Department’s Bureau for Western Hemisphere Affairs, told VOA that the United States is still assisting Haiti with the Moise investigation.    “What we have is a promise from the United States to contribute to and collaborate with the Haitian officials leading the investigation,” Zuniga, speaking Spanish, told VOA Monday. “What is important going forward is that this be a Haitian-led effort. So, the United States, along with our international partners, will continue to do whatever we can to help the Haitian officials move forward with the case.”     Asked by VOA if U.S. President Joe Biden plans to invite Henry to the White House for talks, Zuniga instead addressed the recent earthquake in Haiti, which killed more than 2,200 people.   “Right now, the focus of the new prime minister and the Biden administration is dealing with the current crisis,” Zuniga said of the post-earthquake recovery effort. “So, it’s clear that we need to collaborate in order to relieve the suffering of the Haitian people. That is our focus.”     Meanwhile, in Port-au-Prince, ordinary citizens are expressing doubt about whether Moise’s killer will ever be brought to justice.   Contributed to this report Cristina Caicedo Smit, Jacquelin Belizaire.      Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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Five members of an Afghan girls robotics team have arrived in Mexico after evacuating from their home country. The girls landed in Mexico City on Tuesday night and were welcomed at the airport by Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard. “We received the first applicants for humanitarian status in Mexico from Afghanistan,” Ebrard tweeted late Tuesday. “They are part of a robotics team from that country and uphold a dream: a world with gender equality.”An Afghan woman, member of the Afghanistan Robotic team, is seen during a press conference after her arrival to Mexico after asking for refuge, at the Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City, on August 24, 2021.The robotics team made up of girls and women as young as 14 years old gained attention in 2017 when they traveled to the United States to take part in an international competition. Last year, they worked to develop an open-source, low-cost ventilator as hospitals in many countries faced shortages of equipment to help coronavirus patients. The Associated Press quoted one team member Tuesday saying the team was grateful to Mexico “for saving our lives.” She said that thanks to Mexico’s actions, “our story will not end in a sad way” because of the Taliban. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters. 
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Many survivors of an earthquake that killed more than 2,200 people in southern Haiti are worried about providing for their children, with more than half a million minors feared to be at risk from the fallout.The August 14 quake hammered infrastructure, destroying or damaging some 130,000 homes, cutting off roads and pitching thousands of families in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country into an uncertain future.When the magnitude 7.2 quake struck, Lovely Jean was resting inside the general hospital of the southern city of Les Cayes, while her 3-day-old baby, Love Shaiska, was in the neonatal ward being treated for an infection.Les Cayes was one of the areas worst hit by the quake, and as the hospital walls trembled, Jean sent her husband, Pierre Alexandre, to grab the infant while she fled the building.”The earth was shaking, and I was crying, so scared of what was happening,” the 24-year-old said, cradling her child on the porch of their damaged home in a tiny village outside the town of Camp-Perrin, northwest of Les Cayes.The three survived, though the hospital suffered damage that forced some of its departments, including the neonatal ward, to operate outside for days after the disaster.But the problems were only beginning for Jean and her husband, a subsistence farmer.Alexandre’s fields were buried by landslides during the earthquake and rain unleashed by Tropical Storm Grace, which pummeled Haiti last Tuesday. His entire potato and yuca crops are unreachable, leaving the family with barely any food to eat.More than a dozen other parents who spoke to Reuters in the quake zone expressed similar concerns about how they would cope.More than half a million children were affected by the earthquake, the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said.The temblor claimed the lives of at least 2,207 people, injured 12,268 more and left 344 missing, according to Haitian authorities.Still, there are a few encouraging developments. Late on Sunday, civil protection authorities said 24 people who had been reported missing, including four children, had been found and taken by helicopter to Camp-Perrin to be looked after.Recovery efforts have been impeded by flooding and damage to roads, feeding tensions in hard-hit areas. In the past few days, residents have looted aid trucks in several towns across the south, stirring concerns about security.Deep in the mountains of Haiti’s southern peninsula, in the department of Grand’Anse, near the town of Duchity, about a hundred farmers are living in slender tents of wooden poles and bedsheets they erected along the highway. The quake destroyed their homes, crops and the deep concrete-lined holes used to collect and store rainwater.Now, with scant food and water, many of the young children suffer from hunger, fevers and infections, said Evelya Michele, a mother of five living in the encampment.At least a dozen children had broken out in rashes.”The children are very vulnerable; there is no water so we can’t even wash them to keep them clean,” Michele said.Her older children had taken off earlier that morning, walking to a nearby village in search of food.”I didn’t send them; they just left without even asking me because they are hungry,” she said.
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A fire on an offshore platform operated by Mexican oil and gas giant Pemex has left at least five people dead, two missing and six injured, the state-run company said Monday.The blaze led to the suspension of work at more than 100 oil wells that rely on the platform for electricity and injections of natural gas, Pemex said.The accident occurred Sunday in the Bay of Campeche in the southern Gulf of Mexico during maintenance work.One of the injured was in serious condition, Pemex chief Octavio Romero told a news conference.”The exhaustive search for the missing persons continues,” he said.The fire put 125 oil wells out of action, resulting in a production loss of 425,000 barrels a day, but they were expected to be restarted by Tuesday, Romero said.The company has been trying to arrest a steady decline in its oil production, which fell from an average of 3.4 million barrels a day in 2004 to 1.7 million bpd in 2020.Pemex said it had launched an investigation into the blaze, which it said was brought under control after an hour.Pemex is battling back from what it called the worst crisis in its history last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.The group lost about $23 billion in 2020 due to a slump in demand for energy that caused oil prices to briefly turn negative for the first time.A recovery in prices helped it make a profit of about $720 million in the second quarter of 2021.
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Migrants from Latin America, Africa and Asia are flooding the streets of Necoclí, a town in Colombia across the Gulf of Urabá from the Panamanian border. More than 11,000 migrants are stranded at the port as more arrive with plans to travel north to the United States. Jair Diaz filed this report from Necoclí, narrated by Cristina Caicedo Smits.Camera: Oscar Cavadia  
David Parra also contributed to this report.
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Haitian officials reported Sunday that the death toll from a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Les Cayes rose to 2,207.According to Haiti’s Civil Protection service, more than 50,000 homes have been destroyed and 344 people remain missing.22.08.21 #Sitrep8: #BilanPartielHumain| De nouveaux corps ont été trouvés dans le Sud. Le bilan humain pour les trois départements passe désormais à:✅2207 morts✅344 personnes disparues ✅12 268 blessés. ✅52 923 maisons détruites ✅77 006 maisons endommagées#Haïtipic.twitter.com/8A5KU4nWUl— Pwoteksyon sivil (@Pwoteksyonsivil) August 22, 2021More than 12,000 people were injured in last Saturday’s earthquake.The United Nations estimates that more than 1 million people were affected by the latest crisis to hit the Caribbean island country. Tens of thousands of houses have been reduced to rubble, rendering their inhabitants homeless.More Than 1 Million Haitians Affected by Quake, UN EstimatesDesperation is growing among hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors who have little or no access to reliefThe quake was centered near the town of Petit-Trou-de-Nippes, about 125 kilometers west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, at a depth of 10 kilometers, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.Aid has trickled into the area partly because of the roads and bridges damaged by the quake and the subsequent drenching by a tropical storm. But efforts to bring water, food and medical supplies have also been stymied by gangs that have attacked convoys and hijacked trucks.The country has been reeling since President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in his home July 7. His wife, Martine Moise, was injured in the attack.    
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Hurricane Grace pummeled Mexico with torrential rain on Saturday, causing severe flooding and mudslides that killed at least eight people, authorities said. The storm was one of the most powerful to hit the country’s Gulf coast in years. Grace was whipping up maximum sustained winds of 201 kph (125 mph), a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, when it slammed ashore near the resort of Tecolutla in Veracruz state in the early morning.The state government said eight people were killed, including six from a single family. All but one of the victims died in the state capital, Xalapa, including a young girl killed by a mudslide that hit her home, the government said.Meanwhile, an adult was killed by a collapsed roof in the city of Poza Rica farther north in the state, Veracruz Governor Cuitlahuac Garcia told a news conference.”The state of emergency has not ended,” he added.Floating coffinsLocal television showed severe flooding in Xalapa, with coffins from a local business floating down a waterlogged street. The nearby River Actopan burst its banks, shutting down a local highway, state authorities said.Grace also caused power outages and brought down trees. Images posted on social media showed damage to buildings and cars submerged by the deluge of rain the storm brought.Garcia said several rivers in Veracruz would flood and urged the local residents to take cover.A tree, uprooted when Hurricane Grace slammed into the coast with torrential rains, fell on a house, in Tecolutla, Mexico, Aug. 21, 2021.Television footage also showed flooding in Ciudad Madero in the southern reaches of the state of Tamaulipas near the border of Veracruz. Mexican state oil firm Pemex’s Francisco Madero refinery is in Ciudad Madero.Mexico City’s international airport said some flights were canceled because of the hurricane. National power utility Comision Federal de Electricidad reported 565,000 electricity users were affected by outages. Grace weakened quickly as it moved across Mexico’s mountainous interior, and by 1 p.m. CDT (1800 GMT) it was a tropical storm, with top winds of 75 kph (45 mph).Up to 18 inches of rainThrough Sunday, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center forecast Grace would dump 15 to 30 cm (6 to 12 inches) of rain over swaths of eastern and central Mexico, and up to 45 cm (18 inches) in some areas. The heavy rainfall will likely cause areas of flash and urban flooding, it said.Veracruz and its waters are home to several oil installations, including Pemex’s port in Coatzacoalcos and its Lazaro Cardenas refinery in Minatitlan in the south. Grace hit land well to the north of these cities. Earlier in the week, Grace pounded Mexico’s Caribbean coast, downing trees and causing power outages for nearly 700,000 people, but without causing loss of life, authorities said. It also doused Jamaica and Haiti, still reeling from a 7.2 magnitude earthquake, with torrential rain.
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Tensions in Haiti were rising Saturday about a lack of aid to remote areas hardest hit by last week’s earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people in the impoverished Caribbean country. Many Haitians whose homes and livelihoods were destroyed by the magnitude 7.2 quake that struck on August 14 said they were unsure how to even start rebuilding. Exasperation over the time it is taking for aid to come through began to boil over Friday, with residents attacking aid trucks in several towns across the south of the nation. A confrontation also erupted after former President Michel Martelly visited a hospital in the city of Les Cayes, where one of his staff members left behind an envelope of money that set off a violent scramble. Former Haitian President Michel Martelly arrives at the OFATMA hospital to visit patients and medical personnel in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 20, 2021.Another food delivery was cut short Saturday afternoon at a church near Les Cayes’ airport after a frustrated crowd turned hostile, prompting aid workers to abort the operation. “We are concerned about the deteriorating security situation that may disrupt our assistance to vulnerable Haitians,” said Pierre Honnorat, head of the U.N. World Food Program in Haiti. The official death toll from the earthquake stood at 2,189 people, with an estimated 332 people missing. Residents in towns across the southern rural countryside were still digging for bodies believed to lie underneath the rubble. Possible survivorOn Saturday morning, Haitian and Mexican rescue workers carefully removed layers of concrete debris from a collapsed house in Les Cayes in search of a person who might still be alive a full week after the quake. On Friday night, the team made an unlikely discovery using sonar equipment that showed signs of possible respiration or movement. “We’re hoping for a miracle,” said Luis Alva, one of the Mexican rescue workers with Rescate Internacional Topos. Tens of thousands of homes are in ruins, leaving many families with no option but to sleep outside despite torrential downpours at night. The hurricane season in the Caribbean runs until the end of November, and Prime Minister Ariel Henry has warned residents to brace for more storms. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Twitter that the USS Arlington naval vessel was heading to Haiti carrying helicopters, a surgical team and a landing craft to assist in the relief effort. Several countries, including the United States, have already dispatched aid and rescue teams. The U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, said its first shipment of 9.7 tons of medical and hygiene supplies and water arrived in the capital, Port-au-Prince, on Friday, and another 30 tons of supplies are expected to land in the coming days. Meanwhile, a search and rescue team from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) set off from Port-au-Prince on Saturday morning to help in the quake zone. Paths blockedReaching the worst-hit areas has been hindered by landslides and damage to a highway. Gang fighting has complicated travel between Port-au-Prince and southern parts of the country where crops and access to drinking water have been destroyed. Some animals kept for food were also killed. Officials and residents in small towns and rural areas continued to tally the dead and missing. For countless others, the earthquake has upended their lives in quieter but enduring ways. Manithe Simon, 68, stood in front of her collapsed home in Marceline on Friday, shocked at how quickly her honeymoon had turned into a nightmare. Only days before the quake, Simon and Wisner Desrosier had finally decided to marry in a service in the nearby Baptist church. They had been together 44 years and raised four children together. Now, the bedroom where she had posed for wedding photographs in a sleeveless white dress, flower petals decorating her bed, lay in a heap of rubble. “Our wedding was so beautiful, even though it was raining cats and dogs that day,” she said. “But now we have lost everything.” 
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Career diplomat Oscar Maurtua was sworn in as Peru’s new foreign minister Friday to replace a leftist professor who resigned just weeks into the job over controversial comments he made before taking the role.Maurtua already served as foreign minister in the early 2000s under centrist President Alejandro Toledo, and will now serve the far-left administration led by Pedro Castillo, a former elementary school teacher.His appointment is crucial to Castillo’s political future, as his Cabinet will face a confirmation vote from the opposition-led Congress before the end of the month. He was sworn in during a ceremony at government headquarters that was broadcast on state television, without further government comment.Maurtua replaces Hector Bejar, who resigned under intense pressure because of comments he made before taking the minister job that resurfaced in recent days. He had said last year that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was partly responsible for the creation of Maoist rebel group Shining Path.Maurtua has also served as Peruvian ambassador to several countries, including Canada and Thailand.
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Haitians left hungry and homeless by a devastating earthquake swarmed relief trucks and in some cases stole desperately needed goods Friday as leaders of the poor Caribbean nation struggled to coordinate aid and avoid a repeat of their chaotic response to a similar tragedy 11 years ago. The attacks on relief shipments illustrate the rising frustration of those left homeless after the Aug. 14 magnitude 7.2 earthquake, which killed nearly 2,200 people, injured more than 12,000 and destroyed or damaged more than 100,000 homes.“I have been here since yesterday, not able to do anything,” said 23-year-old Sophonie Numa, who waited outside an international aid distribution site in the small city of Camp-Perrin, located in the hard-hit southwestern Les Cayes region. “I have other people waiting for me to come back with something.”Numa said her home was destroyed in the quake and that her sister broke her leg during the temblor.“The food would help me a lot with the kids and my sister,” she said. George Prosper was also in the large, anxious crowd awaiting aid. “I am a victim. I was removed from under the debris,” the 80-year-old Prosper said. “I don’t feel well standing up right now. I can barely hold myself up.” In the small port city of Les Cayes, an AP photographer saw people stealing foam sleeping pads from a truck parked at a Red Cross compound, while others stole food that was slated for distribution, said Jean-Michel Saba, an official with the country’s civil protection agency. Police managed to safely escort the food truck away, Saba said. He did not say how much was taken. People also stole tarps from a truck in a community outside Les Cayes.Similar thefts appeared to take place in the small town of Vye Terre near Les Cayes, where a second AP photographer witnessed a group of men pulling large sacks from a half-opened container truck. People then grabbed the sacks and rushed off. One man who made away with a parcel of food was immediately surrounded by others who tried to grab it from him as people nearby screamed.The frustration over the pace of aid has been rising for days and has been illustrated by the growing number of people crowding together at aid distribution sites. But Friday was the first time there had been such widespread stealing.Some of the trucks that were looted were part of the convoy of the United States-based nonprofit group Food For The Poor. The trucks were transporting cases of water, bags of rice and beans and cases of Vienna sausage.“Although this unfortunate situation took place, our drivers were able to remain safe and the trucks were not damaged” spokeswoman Soraya Louis said in a statement. “… Our staff members in Haiti are working on assessing the damage and figuring out how to continue the task at hand in reaching even the furthest of the localities in need.”Complicating aid matters, officials began restricting access to the bridge connecting Les Cayes to the small, quake-impacted port city of Jeremie, meaning aid distribution had to be delivered there by boat or plane. The quake wiped out many of the sources of food and income that the poor depend on for survival in Haiti, which is already struggling with the coronavirus, gang violence and the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Most of the devastation happened in Haiti’s already impoverished southwestern region.As of Wednesday, more than 300 people were estimated to still be missing, said Serge Chery, head of civil defense for the Southern Province, which includes the small port city of Les Cayes. In that community, a group of Mexican rescuers focused Friday night on a quake-damaged two-story home where equipment that allows them to detect sounds beneath the rubble caught noise.Pressure for coordinated aid efforts mounted this week as more bodies were pulled from the rubble and the injured continued to arrive from remote areas in search of medical care.International aid workers on the ground said hospitals in the areas worst hit by the quake are mostly incapacitated and that there is a desperate need for medical equipment. Prime Minister Ariel Henry on Friday asked international governments and aid groups to funnel all of their donations through the country’s civil protection agency, “which will specify the needs of each town, each village and each remote area not yet attended.”U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, on a two-day mission to Haiti, met with Henry on Thursday and also visited quake victims in the city of Les Cayes. She said Friday that she was “particularly impressed by the work” of Haiti’s civil protection agency, and that the agency “must be empowered to lead a coordinated response.” Henry said earlier this week that his administration will work to not “repeat history on the mismanagement and coordination of aid,” a reference to the chaos that followed the country’s devastating 2010 earthquake, when the government was accused of not getting all of the money raised by donors to the people who needed it. Mohammed said doing things differently this time “will require investing in long-term development and supporting government leadership.”The Core Group, a coalition of key international diplomats from the United States and other nations that monitors Haiti, said in a statement Wednesday that its members are “resolutely committed to working alongside national and local authorities to ensure that impacted people and areas receive adequate assistance as soon as possible.”
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The United Nations warned Friday that desperation was growing among hundreds of thousands of Haitian earthquake survivors who have little or no access to the shelter, food, medical care and other essential relief they need.More than 2,000 people have died as a result of the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit southwestern Haiti a week ago. The United Nations estimated that more than 1 million people were affected by the latest crisis to hit the Caribbean island state. Tens of thousands of houses have been reduced to rubble, rendering their inhabitants homeless.Aid is slow to reach survivors of the disaster because roads are blocked by debris from the earthquake. Heavy rains and flooding from Tropical Storm Grace also have made it difficult for aid workers to reach people in need.A resident crawls away with a donated bag of rice after residents overtook a truck loaded with earthquake relief supplies, in Vye Terre, Haiti, Aug. 20, 2021.World Food Program official Marianela Gonzales said she was awakened by the earthquake Saturday inside her home in the capital, Port-au-Prince. In the few seconds it took her to realize what was happening, she said, hundreds of people died. Two days later, she headed for Les Cayes, one of the hardest-hit areas.”WFP was here, even before the earthquake, supporting over 200,000 people who cannot even afford any meal per day,” Gonzales said. “So the earthquake happened on the same people. The roof fell on the same people and Tropical Storm Grace rained on the same people for the next few days. … Definitely hard to be here today to enter these hospitals, to see people in the streets without a roof to sleep under, especially children.”Police stand guard near the entrance of a Red Cross center after people entered and took off with several foam mattresses, in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 20, 2021, six days after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the area.The WFP estimated 215,000 people in earthquake-hit areas urgently need food assistance. The agency is using air, sea and road routes to transport essential supplies to the affected areas. And a U.N. Humanitarian Air Service helicopter managed by WFP is transporting staff, medical supplies and other essential needs. The agency said it needed $2.5 million for that operation.Other U.N. and private agencies are ramping up their relief efforts. The U.N. children’s fund estimated that children accounted for nearly half of the 1.2 million people affected by the earthquake. The director of the U.N. information service in Geneva, Alessandra Vellucci, said a UNICEF assessment found that 95 of 255 schools were either damaged or destroyed just weeks before classes were to start. “UNICEF is rushing lifesaving supplies including medicine, safe water, hygiene and sanitation material to points in the affected areas even as flooding and mudslides hamper relief efforts,” Vellucci said.UNICEF appealed for $15 million to assist 385,000 people over the next eight weeks.The World Health Organization warned of possible outbreaks of cholera, dengue, meningitis and other infectious diseases and the continued spread of COVID-19. This comes at a time when most hospitals, it said, are overwhelmed with patients and require emergency support and medical supplies and equipment.
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Grace is back over open water after crossing Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and is likely to become a hurricane once again by late Friday, while in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Henri is likely to reach hurricane status Saturday.In its latest advisory, the hurricane center says Grace is in the Gulf of Mexico about 425 kilometers east of Tuxpan, Mexico with maximum sustained winds of 110 km/h.Forecasters expect the storm to continue strengthening in the warm waters and regain hurricane strength by the time it makes landfall later Friday.  Hurricane Grace Makes Landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan PeninsulaHeavy rainfall associated with Grace could trigger flash and urban flooding as well as mudslides throughout regionThe governor of the Yucatan state of Quintana Roo, Carlos Joaquín, told reporters that over 300 people were evacuated in the path of the storm, mainly from Carrillo Puerto and Tulum. He said the storm knocked out power in some areas of Cancun and Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, Puerto Aventura, and Tulum.  Emergency crews worked early Friday to clear downed trees from roadways and video from the area shows buildings damaged and boats driven onto land by the storm.Forecasters expect Grace to bring heavy rain to areas of Mexico Friday, with as much as 45 centimeters in isolated areas.Meanwhile, in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Henri, at last report, was about 600 km off the coast of the southeastern U.S. state of North Carolina with maximum sustained winds of about 100 km/h.  While it is moving to the west-northwest, forecasters expect it will turn to the north Friday and move up the U.S. east coast.  The hurricane center expects Henri to gain strength as it accelerates north over the next 24 hours and reach hurricane strength by Saturday.  The forecasters say Henri is expected to approach the coast of southern New England on Sunday. It is likely to create swells along much of the east coast of the U.S. and Canada through the next two to three days.Some information in this report was provided by the Associated Press news service.
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A radio journalist was shot and killed in the Mexican Gulf coast state of Veracruz Thursday, according to his station and state authorities.Jacinto Romero Flores was gunned down in the community of Potrerillo, in the township of Ixtaczoquitlan, according to Hugo Gutierrez Maldonado, the head of Veracruz state security agency, via Twitter. Gutierrez said state police were carrying out an operation in the area following the killing.Romero worked for Ori Stereo 99.3 FM. The station expressed its sadness for his death. “The media are not the cause nor the effect of violence in the country, but we do suffer the consequences for carrying out journalism and communication,” it said in a statement.The State Commission for Attention to and Protection of Journalists condemned the killing and called on the state prosecutor’s office to open a full investigation, including into what role if any Romero’s journalism played in his murder.Press freedom organization Article 19 said Romero had received threats. The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists said via Twitter that it had “learned of and strongly condemns the murder of reporter Jacinto Romero in the state of Veracruz and urges authorities to undertake a swift, transparent and exhaustive investigation into the killing.”Veracruz has for years been one of Mexico’s most deadly states for reporters. Multiple organized crime groups operate within the state and have infiltrated local and state government. Journalists marched late Thursday in the port city of Veracruz to protest Romero’s killing.Press groups say nine journalists were killed in Mexico in 2020, making it the most dangerous country for reporters outside of war zones. Romero is at least the fifth journalist killed in Mexico this year.Earlier this month, the Jalisco New Generation cartel publicly threatened to kill a prominent television news anchor.
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The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on three senior Cuban officials, the latest in a series of actions in response to the crackdown on recent anti-government protesters on the island.The penalties targeted two top defense ministry officials for their role in suppressing the rare demonstrations in the communist-ruled nation, where hundreds were jailed, the Treasury Department said in a statement.Washington “will continue to hold accountable those who enable the Cuban government to perpetuate human rights abuse,” said Andrea M. Gacki, head of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.”Today’s action exposes additional perpetrators responsible for suppressing the Cuban people’s calls for freedom and respect for human rights.”After previously slapping sanctions on defense minister Alvaro Lopez Miera and the Cuban police, the latest move hits Roberto Legra Sotolongo and Andres Laureano Gonzalez Brito of the Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces.They also cover Abelardo Jimenez Gonzalez, who is in charge of prisons at the Interior Ministry.”Cuban security forces have detained more than 800 people in response to the protests, with many being held in ‘preventative jail,’ and the whereabouts of multiple people still unknown,” the statement said.Adding them to Treasury’s sanctions blacklist freezes any property they have in the United States and bars any transactions using the US financial system.President Joe Biden has warned Havana that more actions are possible, and Washington has called for the release of detained protesters, while trying to find ways to ensure internet access for the Cuban people.
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Relief for the victims of a powerful earthquake and tropical storm began flowing more quickly into Haiti on Thursday, but the Caribbean nation’s entrenched poverty, insecurity and lack of basic infrastructure were still presenting huge challenges to getting food and urgent medical care to all those who need it.Private relief supplies and shipments from the U.S. government and others were arriving in the southwestern peninsula where the weekend quake struck, killing more than 2,100 people. But the need was extreme, made worse by the rain from Tropical Storm Grace, and people were growing frustrated with the slow pace.Adding to the problems, a major hospital in the capital of Port-au-Prince, where many of the injured were being sent, was closed Thursday for a two-day shutdown to protest the kidnapping of two doctors, including one of the country’s few orthopedic surgeons. The abductions dealt a blow to attempts to control criminal violence that has threatened disaster response efforts in the capital.Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency has raised the number of deaths from the earthquake to 2,189 and said 12,268 people were injured. More than 300 people are estimated to still be missing, said Serge Chery, head of civil defense for the Southern Province, which includes the hard-hit small port city of Les Cayes.The magnitude 7.2 earthquake damaged or destroyed more than 100,000 homes, leaving about 30,000 families homeless, according to official estimates. Hospitals, schools, offices and churches also were demolished or badly damaged.The U.S. aid effort has been building since the initial hours after the earthquake. On Thursday, 10 U.S. military helicopters ferried in search and rescue teams, medical workers and supplies that had been pre-positioned in Haiti by the U.S. Agency for International Development after the devastating 2010 earthquake. A Navy ship, the USS Arlington, was expected to arrive this weekend, said Adm. Craig Faller, who oversees the military response as commander of Miami-based U.S. Southern Command.“We’ve got the momentum now,” Faller said. “We’ve got the assets in place. We’ve figured out logistics.”The U.S. government is still working with Haitian authorities and others to determine the extent of the damage and casualties. Faller said a U.S. Geological Survey assessment projected there could be more than 10,000 deaths. One of the U.S. helicopters landed Thursday in Les Cayes with equipment, medicine and volunteers, including some from the aid group Samaritan’s Purse. Monte Oitker, a biomedical technician with the organization, said volunteers were prepared to operate a self-contained hospital unit, capable of handling a variety of orthopedic procedures.Distributing aid to the thousands left homeless could be more challenging.Desperation, Pressure for Aid Increase in Haiti After Quake Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency put the number of deaths from the quake at 1,941 and said more than 10,000 people were injuredChery said officials are hoping to start clearing sites where homes were destroyed to allow residents to build temporary shelters. “It will be easier to distribute aid if people are living at their addresses, rather than in a tent,” he said.While some officials have suggested an end to the search for survivors so that heavy machinery can clear all the rubble, Prime Minister Ariel Henry appeared unwilling to move to that stage. “Some of our citizens are still under the debris. We have teams of foreigners and Haitians working on it,” he said.He also appealed for unity.“We have to put our heads together to rebuild Haiti,” Henry said. “The country is physically and mentally destroyed.”Tension over the slow distribution of aid has become increasingly evident in the area hit hardest by Saturday’s quake. At the small airport in Les Cayes, people thronged a perimeter fence Wednesday as aid was loaded into trucks and police fired warning shots to disperse a crowd of young men.Angry crowds also massed at collapsed buildings in the city, demanding tarps to create temporary shelters after Grace’s heavy rain. Also in Les Cayes, 22 prisoners escaped from the jail after the quake hit, said National Police spokeswoman Marie-Michelle Verrier.International aid workers said hospitals in the worst-hit areas are mostly incapacitated, which is why many patients need to be moved to the capital for treatment. But reaching Port-au-Prince from the southwest is difficult under normal conditions because of poor roads and gangs along the route. Even with a supposed gang truce following the earthquake, kidnapping remains a threat — underscored by the seizure of the two doctors working at the private Bernard Mevs Hospital in Port-au-Prince, where about 50 quake victims were being treated. And another problem emerged in the quake-damaged southern provinces, where national police said villagers put up barricades on the roads to prevent aid from getting through, arguing that they need help too. “For those people who are blocking roads at their leisure to stop it (aid) from getting through to the people, you need to wait until the aid comes to you,” Verrier said. She said special police units would escort aid shipments. So far, the U.S. military has found the roads it needs to be open and has encountered no security issues from gangs, Faller said in an interview with The Associated Press. The Arlington will come equipped not just with a surgical team to treat victims but a Marine Corps rapid reaction security force that will stay on the ship unless needed. “They are an insurance policy, frankly,” Faller said. “Marines are trained for that and they’re trained for the appropriate use of force. And there’s a deterrent value to having them in the area, as well. And we intend to be ready.”Jerry Chandler, the head of the national civil defense agency, said the Haiti National Police presence has also been “an important step to help us move the aid.” Chandler said his agency also has boats and helicopters “to bring aid and bring it quickly” to certain areas. A group of 18 Colombian volunteer search-and-rescue workers had to be escorted out of the quake-hit city of Jeremie under police protection after a rumor circulated that they had been involved in the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moise. The workers took shelter Wednesday night at a civil defense office, and police escorted them to the airport on Thursday.Moise’s killing, still unsolved, is suspected of being carried out by a group of Colombian mercenaries. Despite what happened to the Colombian rescue workers, Haiti is welcoming “everyone who is coming to bring assistance,” Chandler said.Henry said Wednesday that his administration will try not to “repeat history on the mismanagement and coordination of aid,” a reference to the country’s devastating 2010 earthquake, when the government and international partners struggled to channel help to the needy amid the widespread destruction and misery.The Core Group, a coalition of key international diplomats from the U.S. and other nations that monitors Haiti, said in a statement Wednesday that its members are “resolutely committed to working alongside national and local authorities to ensure that impacted people and areas receive adequate assistance as soon as possible.”
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Grace made landfall in the predawn hours Thursday near the city of Tulum on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The Florida-based center said the storm came ashore about 15 kilometers south of Tulum with 130-kilometer-per hour winds and a dangerous storm surge of about one to two meters above normal tide levels. The heavy rainfall associated with Grace could trigger flash and urban flooding as well as mudslides throughout the region.Ahead of the storm, Quintana Roo State Governor Carlos Joaquín told reporters state and municipal civil protection officials will tour hotels in Tulum to evacuate those facilities unequipped to handle a Category One hurricane. A storm in that category has winds ranging from 119 kilometers to 153 kilometers per hour on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.Forecasters expect Grace to move across the Yucatan Peninsula Thursday, and over the southwest Gulf of Mexico late in the day or early Friday. It is expected to continue to weaken as it crosses the peninsula but regain some strength once it moves back over water. The forecasters also say they expect Grace to be a hurricane once it makes landfall over Mexico’s mainland coast. At last report, the hurricane center said Grace’s winds had dropped to 75 kilometers per hour.Meanwhile, forecasters continue to watch Henri, which, at last report, was about 845 kilometers off the coast of North Carolina and a very strong tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 110 kilometers per hour, approaching hurricane strength.Weather forecasters expect Henri to become a hurricane within the next 24 hours and take a turn to the north. Forecasters are advising people in the coastal northeastern United States and Canada to continue monitoring the progress of the storm as it is likely to affect those areas early next week. (Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press news agency.) 
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Pressure for a coordinated response to Haiti’s deadly weekend earthquake mounted Wednesday as more bodies were pulled from the rubble and the injured, in search of medical care, continued to arrive from remote areas. Aid was slowly trickling in to help the thousands who were left homeless.  International aid workers on the ground said that hospitals in the areas worst hit by Saturday’s quake are mostly incapacitated and there is a desperate need for medical equipment. But the government told at least one foreign organization that has been operating in the country for nearly three decades that it did not need assistance from hundreds of its medical volunteers.  Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ariel Henry said Wednesday that his administration will work to avoid “repeat history on the mismanagement and coordination of aid,” a reference to the chaos that followed the country’s devastating 2010 earthquake, when the government was accused of not getting all the money raised by donors to the people who needed it.  People look for goods while an excavator removes rubble from a destroyed building after Saturday’s 7.2 magnitude quake, in Les Cayes, Haiti, August 18, 2021.In a message on his Twitter account, Henry said that he “personally” will ensure that the aid gets to the victims this time around. The Core Group, a coalition of key international diplomats from the United States and other nations that monitors Haiti, said in a statement Wednesday that its members are “resolutely committed to working alongside national and local authorities to ensure that impacted people and areas receive adequate assistance as soon as possible.” Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency put the number of deaths from the quake at 1,941 and said more than 10,000 people were injured. The magnitude 7.2 earthquake destroyed more than 7,000 homes and damaged more than 12,000, leaving about 30,000 families homeless, officials said. Schools, offices and churches were also demolished or badly damaged. The U.S. Geological Survey said a preliminary analysis of satellite imagery after the earthquake revealed hundreds of landslides. Crowds demand aid Tensions were growing Wednesday over the slow pace of aid efforts. At the airport in the southwest city of Les Cayes, one of the hardest-hit areas, throngs of people gathered outside the fence at the terminal after an aid flight arrived and crews began loading boxes into waiting trucks. One of the members of a Haitian national police squad on hand to guard the shipments fired two warning shots to disperse a group of young men. Angry crowds also massed at collapsed buildings in the city, demanding tarps to create temporary shelters that were needed more than ever after Tropical Storm Grace brought heavy rain on Monday and Tuesday. One of the first food deliveries by local authorities — a couple dozen boxes of rice and premeasured bagged meal kits — reached a tent encampment set up in one of the poorest areas of Les Cayes, where most of the warren’s one-story tin-roofed cinderblock homes were damaged or destroyed by Saturday’s quake. A boy injured after Saturday’s 7.2 magnitude quake cries while being treated at the Ofatma Hospital, in Les Cayes, Haiti, August 18, 2021.But the shipment was clearly insufficient for the hundreds who have lived under tents and tarps for five days. “It’s not enough, but we’ll do everything we can to make sure everybody gets at least something,” said Vladimir Martino, a resident of the camp who took charge of the precious cargo for distribution. Gerda Francoise, 24, was one of dozens who lined up in the wilting heat in hopes of receiving food. “I don’t know what I’m going to get, but I need something to take back to my tent,” said Francoise. “I have a child.” The quake wiped out many of the sources of food and income that many of the poor depend on for survival in Haiti, which is already struggling with the coronavirus, gang violence and the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. “We don’t have anything. Even the (farm) animals are gone. They were killed by the rockslides,” said Elize Civil, 30, a farmer in the village of Fleurant, near the quake’s epicenter. Civil’s village and many of those in the Nippes province depend on livestock such as goats, cows and chickens for much of their income, said Christy Delafield, who works with the U.S.-based relief organization Mercy Corps. The group is considering cash distributions to allow residents to continue buying local products from small local businesses that are vital to their communities. Large-scale aid has not yet reached many areas, and one dilemma for donors is that pouring huge amounts of staple foods purchased abroad could, in the long run, hurt local producers. “We don’t want to flood the area with a lot of products coming in from off the island,” Delafield said. She said aid efforts must also take a longer view for areas like Nippes, which has been hit in recent years by ever-stronger cyclical droughts and soil erosion. Support for adapting farming practices to the new climate reality — with less reliable rainfall and more tropical storms — is vital, she said. Etzer Emile, a Haitian economist and professor at Quisqueya University, a private institution in the capital of Port-au-Prince, said the disaster will increase Haitians’ dependence on remittances from abroad and assistance from international nongovernmental groups. “Foreign aid unfortunately never helps in the long term,” he said. “The southwest needs instead activities that can boost economic capacity for jobs and better social conditions.”  Medical equipment needed One of the country’s most immediate needs now is medical equipment.  “The hospitals are all broken and collapsed, the operating rooms aren’t functional, and then, if you bring tents, it’s hurricane season. They can blow right away,” said Dr. Barth Green, president and co-founder of Project Medishare, an organization that has worked in Haiti since 1994 to improve health services.  A nurse walks next to beds with people injured by the earthquake on Saturday, at a hospital in Les Cayes, Haiti, August 18, 2021.Green was hopeful the U.S. military would establish a field hospital in the affected area.  U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crews concentrated on the most urgent task, ferrying the injured to less-stressed medical facilities. A U.S. Navy amphibious warship, the USS Arlington, was expected to head for Haiti on Wednesday with a surgical team and landing craft. Green noted that his organization has “hundreds of medical volunteers, but the Haitian government tells us they don’t need them.”  He said Project Medishare was deploying nonetheless, along with other organizations. He said he sensed caution on the part of the government after bad experiences with outside aid following previous disasters. At the public hospital in L’Asile, deep in a remote stretch of countryside in the southwest, the obstetrics, pediatric and operating wing collapsed, though everyone made it out. Despite the damage, the hospital was able to treat about 170 severely injured quake victims in improvised tents set up on the grounds of the facility.  People were arriving from isolated villages with broken arms and legs.  Hospital director Sonel Fevry said five such patients showed up Tuesday.  “We do what we can,” Fevry said. Mercy Corps said about half of L’Asile’s homes were destroyed and 90% were affected in some way. Most public buildings where people would normally shelter also were destroyed. The nearby countryside was devastated: In one 10-mile (16-kilometer) stretch, not a single house, church, store or school was left standing. 
 
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The death toll from a devastating earthquake that struck Haiti over the weekend rose by almost 250 on Wednesday to 2,189, the Caribbean nation’s civil protection agency said. “The toll from the earthquake is 2,189,” the agency said on Twitter. More than 12,260 people were injured when the quake hit the southwestern part of Haiti on Saturday, about 160 kilometers to the west of the capital Port-au-Prince, according to the updated toll.   The civil protection agency added that 332 people have been reported missing and rescue operations were ongoing. Tremors continue to rock the area.   Tens of thousands of buildings were destroyed and damaged in the impoverished country, still recovering from another devastating earthquake in 2010. Haiti has also been beleaguered by gang violence, Covid-19, and political chaos, which spiked last month after the assassination of president Jovenel Moise.   The government has declared a month-long state of emergency in the four provinces affected by the quake.  
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A growing number of U.S. governors say they will help resettle Afghan refugees in their states following a rapid Taliban takeover of Afghanistan that blindsided Western nations and left them scrambling to evacuate ambassadors and allies.At least 10 governors offered support this week as the Pentagon looked to secure temporary space for up to 22,000 Afghan allies in the United States. As of Monday, the first 2,000 Afghans were placed at the Fort Lee military base in Virginia, with thousands more refugees expected to arrive at bases in Texas and Wisconsin in the coming weeks.”The chaotic and heartbreaking scenes out of Afghanistan over the last several days … is the result of a rushed and irresponsible withdrawal,” Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, said. “Many of these Afghan citizens, our allies, bravely risked their lives to provide invaluable support for many years to our efforts, as interpreters and support staff, and we have a moral obligation to help them.”To date, California, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin have offered refuge or indicated a willingness to resettle refugees. The governor of Guam, a U.S. territory, also offered to house evacuees.Humanitarian organizations estimate that nearly 80,000 Afghan allies and their families have applied for special immigrant visas (SIVs) to the U.S., a program the government set up to expedite the process of resettling Afghan allies.An Afghan child sleeps on the cargo floor of a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III, kept warm by the uniform of Airman 1st Class Nicolas Baron, during an evacuation flight from Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug 18, 2021. (U.S. Air Force/Handout via Reuters)”More than 70,000 … have participated in the SIV program since 2005. Our military has done an outstanding job supporting this effort,” said Garry Reid, director of the Afghanistan crisis action group for the Department of Defense.Afghan allies are generally people who had helped the U.S. war effort by acting as translators for the military, cultural guides or sources of information.The International Rescue Committee estimates that more than 300,000 Afghans have helped the American mission over two decades, though far fewer will qualify for refugee protection in the U.S.’Wisconsin is ready’“We have been in contact with federal partners about resettlement efforts for Afghan people who are seeking refuge at Fort McCoy,” Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said in an official statement. “As we learn more information, Wisconsin is ready to assist these efforts and help these individuals who served our country and are now seeking refuge.”The Taliban have promised a peaceful transition of power with no retaliation against former soldiers or government officials, though Reuters reported Wednesday that at least three anti-Taliban demonstrators were killed in protests in Jalalabad after members of the Taliban opened fire.Since it is unlikely the U.S. will be able to absorb so many refugees in a compressed time frame, President Joe Biden has turned to other countries for help.FILE – Afghan refugees who supported Canada’s mission in Afghanistan wait to board buses after arriving in Canada at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, Aug. 13, 2021.Canada announced last week it would resettle approximately 20,000 refugees. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also urged the international community to accept Afghan refugees.“The world is watching. We cannot and must not abandon the people of Afghanistan,” he said.Thousands per dayAfter the U.S. military secured the international airport in Kabul on Monday, the Pentagon ramped up evacuation efforts and now estimates it can remove between 5,000 and 9,000 people from Afghanistan per day.The hasty evacuations follow a sooner-than-expected collapse of the Afghanistan government as Taliban forces swept the country, emboldened by the removal of U.S. troops. Meeting little resistance from the Afghan military, the Taliban reclaimed the Afghanistan capital of Kabul in mere days, despite previous predictions from national security officials that doing so could take months.In a Monday address to the nation, Biden said large-scale evacuations didn’t start sooner because the Afghan government didn’t want to incite a “crisis of confidence” in the Afghan military’s ability to fight the Taliban.“American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves,” Biden said. “We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We could not provide them with the will to fight for that future.”Some information for this report came from Reuters
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