By Hajira Khota
25:08:2021

A 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on August 14, 2021, destroying hospitals, schools, and homes, killing hundreds of people and putting towns in peril.

The situation on the ground has been difficult in the aftermath of the earthquake. Flooding and damage to access roads have also hampered recovery operations, fuelling tensions in some hardest-hit districts. Desperate crowds have scuffled over food packages in several instances. Teams of aid workers and rescuers have started flooding into the country.

Several major hospitals and the focal points of many devastated towns, such as churches and schools, were severely damaged, impeding humanitarian efforts.

Radio Islam International interviewed Qari Ziyaad Patel from Al-Imdaad Foundation, who was on the ground in Haiti; they did not find any survivors, but many bodies were pulled out from the rubble.

Survivors described how terrified they were as the earth trembled and wreaked havoc in the Les Cayes area.

The death toll rises as rescue efforts are continuing, and officials are grappling with the distribution.

“Official death toll stands at 2 207, while at least 30 000 people have had to abandon their homes”.

The storm hampered rescuers in the seaside community of Les Cayes, which took the brunt of the quake, as prospects of discovering significant numbers of survivors faded. Hundreds of injured people, including children and the elderly, were treated in makeshift tents outside hospitals.

The calamity strikes at a difficult time for Haiti. In addition to the pandemic, the impoverished country of 11 million people are already in a state of political chaos following the assassination of its president last month, and it has yet to recover from the 2010 earthquake, which killed 316,000 people, according to government estimates one year later.

The 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, was the most destructive natural disaster in the country’s history, affecting about 3 million people. Approximately 250,000 people died, and 300,000 were injured. Roughly 1.5 million people were forced to live in improvised camps for internally displaced people. As a result, the country found itself amid its largest humanitarian crisis in history.

Haiti remains highly vulnerable to natural hazards, mainly hurricanes, floods and earthquakes. Haiti has also been overrun by gang violence and plagued by civil unrest, food insecurity, low education rates and cholera.

[WATCH] the interview here or [LISTEN] to the podcast here