An earthquake killed at least 4 people and injured 36 on Tuesday, June 6, in western Haiti, announced a local branch of Civil Protection, while the country was already facing deadly floods.
Three of the deceased “are members of the same family and were killed because of the collapse of their house”, Christine Monquélé, head of Civil Protection in the district, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). department of Grand’Anse. “We are saddened by the loss of life, the destruction, as well as by the suffering of the Haitian population caused by the earthquake,” commented in New York Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
The earthquake, of magnitude 4.9 according to the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS), occurred shortly after 5 a.m. (10 a.m. in Paris) at a depth of 10 km and about 9 km from the coast. , said Christine Monquélé. This Caribbean country is regularly hit by destructive earthquakes.
“I thought the whole house was going to fall on me,” Eric Mpitabakana, a World Food Program official living in Jérémie, told the Associated Press (AP). “There were a lot of people on the street and a lot of panic,” he said.
“Everyone rushed out”
Claude Prepetit, a geologist and engineer with Haiti’s Bureau of Mines and Energy, told Radio Caraïbes that the small earthquakes that occurred earlier this year in the south of the country led to the large quake. of this Tuesday. “Everyone rushed outside with their children, their babies,” he said.
The southwestern peninsula had already been devastated in August 2021 by a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.2 which had killed more than 2,200 people and destroyed more than 130,000 homes.
In 2010, a magnitude 7 earthquake killed more than 200,000 people. The quake devastated Port-au-Prince, the capital, and left 1.5 million homeless.
Violent bad weather had already 51 dead, 18 missing and 140 injured over the weekend, according to a new report from the Haitian authorities quoted Tuesday by the United Natuins. “The United Nations stands ready to work with the Haitian authorities and other partners to help alleviate the suffering of those in need, whether related to the earthquake or other natural disasters, floods and landslides in last few days,” said Stéphane Dujarric. The World Food Program is preparing to distribute 350,000 meals and other food aid “to those most in need”, but “insecurity and road damage are hampering aid operations”, he said. added, referring to gang violence.
