The number of people killed by the massive 7.2-magnitude earthquake on August 14 in Haiti has increased to 2,207, with 344 others still missing, the country’s civil protection agency reported.
The agency said on Twitter on Sunday that a week after the earthquake, which also left at least 12,268 injured, the number of damaged homes exceeded 77,000, while almost 53,000 were destroyed, reports Xinhua news agency.
The earthquake had its epicenter some 125 km west of Port-au-Prince and had a depth of 10 km, which is why at the time a tsunami alert was issued but was later canceled.
The new toll comes at a time when relief operations are expanding — the US-based aid agency Samaritan’s Purse opened a field hospital Saturday — but authorities are struggling with security at distribution points. Gangs have hijacked aid trucks and desperate crowds have scuffled over bags of food.
In the hard-hit city of Les Cayes, meanwhile, some attended outdoor church services on Sunday because sanctuaries had been badly damaged by the quake, which was centered on the impoverished nation’s southwestern peninsula.
Meanwhile, Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry has declared a month-long state of emergency and urged the population to “show solidarity”.
In 2010, another massive earthquake in Haiti killed more than 200,000 people and caused extensive damage to the country’s infrastructure and economy.
By Friday, aid was flowing bit by bit to Les Cayes, one of the cities on Haiti’s southern peninsula worst hit by the quake, but the limited supplies only raised tensions among increasingly desperate residents.
Recovery efforts have also been impeded by flooding and damage to access roads, feeding tensions in some of the hardest-hit areas. In places, desperate crowds have scuffled over bags of food.
On Sunday, one of the capital’s most notorious gangsters announced in a social media video that his allied gangs had reached a truce and would assist in relief efforts. If that proves to be true, it might allow an acceleration of relief efforts.