Aliyah Siddiqui
International Assistant Editor
On Jan. 24, two earthquakes, with magnitudes of 5.4 and 5.6, struck southern Haiti, killing two people and injuring 52. These earthquakes come after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Aug. 2021, which killed over 2,000 people.
According to Al-Jazeera, one man died in Anse-à-Veau due to a wall collapsing, while another man died due to a landslide in Fond-des-Nègres. The earthquakes also destroyed nearly 200 homes and damaged another 600 in the Nippes region. In Les Cayes, children ran out of schools despite there not being any damage. Yves Bossé, an elected official in Nippes, also told The Associated Press about the fear the earthquakes caused among citizens.
“People are scared to go back into their homes,” Bossé said.
According to The Washington Post, many students faced shock and were taken to the hospital, and in the southern region of the country, where the earthquakes took place, businesses and schools were closed early out of precaution.
In Pestel, however, Jean Robert Leger, a resident of the town, reported minimal damage in a phone call to Reuters.
“In Pestel, there is not so much damage. We see that the houses next to the sea that were already damaged have collapsed some more,” Leger said.
Haitian Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, expressed his condolences and support to the victims of the earthquake. Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency, the DGPC, has sent volunteers to the most affected regions, Anse-à-Veau, Petite-Rivière-de-Nippes and Fonds-des-Nègres, to aid in the clean up and recovery efforts. They have also conducted rapid needs assessments, which found that psychological support was needed for those affected, especially schoolchildren, along with shelter and non-food relief items including hygiene sets. OCHA Haiti (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Haiti) also reported that 834 families need assistance.
The earthquakes hit just after Haiti honored the twelfth year anniversary of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti in Jan. 2010, killing over two hundred thousand people, injuring over three hundred thousand people and destroying over one hundred thousand buildings. Haiti is also still recovering from the earthquake back in Aug. 2021 and economic setbacks.
