News

Tensions Over Aid Grow In Haiti As Quake’s Deaths Pass 2,000

Published

4 years ago

August 20, 2021

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 late Wednesday 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.

Chery 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 of 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.”

(AP)

News

Awujale Absent At 2025 Ojude Oba Festival

Published

10 minutes ago

June 9, 2025

Editor

The Awujale and paramount ruler of Ijebu land, Oba Sikiru Adetona, was conspicuously absent at the Ojude Oba festival on Sunday in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.

The annual cultural celebration which is held three days after the celebration of Eid-el-Kabir provides the opportunity for the people of Ijebu land, who are usually dressed in various beautiful attires to pay homage to the Awujale and display the rich cultural heritage of the Ijebu people including horse riding among others.

However, the highly revered traditional ruler, who for decades usually sits in his majesty to receive the homage from the thousands of guests, tourists, and people from Ijebu during the annual festival, was absent from the festival held on Sunday.

He was represented by his wife, Olori Kemi Adetona.

Though, there has been no official statement detailing why the monarch was absent at the festival but an impeccable source told our correspondent that the 91-year-old monarch was not getting younger and that his absence was due to old age.

However, concerns are also said to be mounting over the health of the royal father.

A senior official from the state government who pleaded not to be quoted also confirmed that the absence of the royal father was due to old age and that nothing was wrong with the health of the paramount ruler.

However, efforts to get the reaction of the Coordinator of the 2025 Ojude Oba festival, Fassy Yusuf, proved abortive as calls made to his line were not connecting while the text sent to him has not been replied at the time of filing this report on Monday.

News

World Ocean Day: HOMEF Wants An End To Human’s Exploitative Relationship With The Ocean

Published

12 hours ago

June 8, 2025

Editor

By Joseph Ebi Kanjo

Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has called for an end to human’s exploitative, violent, and destructive relationship with the ocean even as the world marks World Ocean Day today, 8 June, 2025.

In a statement issued by Kome Odhomor, Media/Communications Lead, HOMEF, to mark this year’s World Ocean Day with the theme: ‘Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us,’ the ecological think tank organisation said Ocean is not just a water but an ecosystems which “supply a substantial amount of oxygen to the atmosphere and offer various services that ensure the survival of all species on Earth.

“Climate change, primarily caused by human activities, is impacting the ocean. Dead zones are proliferating, pollution from minerals and fossil fuel extraction and production processes is occurring, unsustainable industrial fishing practices are occurring, intentional waste dumping is occurring, and disturbances of the ocean floor and seabeds are among a long list of destructive activities.

“As ocean surface temperatures increase, global warming will also rise. Therefore, protecting the ocean from these forms of degradation would ultimately safeguard the Earth. Let’s protect the ocean and force others to respect it because we are the ocean; we are part of the ocean family.”

Odhomor, in the statement made available to INFO DAILY on Sunday, quoted the Executive Director of HOMEF, Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, as saying the World Ocean Day is celebrated annually on 8 June to underscore the immeasurable importance of the world’s ocean and garner support for their protection.

Bassey in the statement lamented that despite the importance, the ocean and other water bodies are continuously subjected to a barrage of assaults at local, national, and international levels.

“The concept that the ocean cycles itself and acts as a greenhouse gas sink has been misconstrued to mean that the ocean can filter and clean itself no matter what is dumped in it.

“The ocean and other waterbodies have become dumpsites of all sorts, polluting and extreme exploitation.

“There are a lot of unusual activities going on in our waters that must not be allowed to continue if we want a healthy ocean and planet,” he noted.

Bassey further stated that “corporate interests have been substituted for national and people-centred interests, as communities that live along the coasts, bear the brunt of such abnormalities. Now is the time for all to rise to the occasion to protect the ocean. The continued burning of the Ororo Oil well over a period of five years is a sad commentary on ecocide on our waters.”

Also lending his voice, Stephen Oduware, a Programme Manager with HOMEF and Coordinator of the Fishnet Alliance, a network of fishers across Africa, emphatically noted that the world’s fisheries depend on the ocean.

“The two major sides of the ocean bordering Africa – the Atlantic and Indian, along with their associated gulfs, are experiencing shortfalls in fishing due to vested and powerful interests. Industrial fishing, including the use of bottom trawlers, is partly responsible for unsustainable fishing and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in the region.

“These practices not only harm fisheries but also harm the ocean and create imbalances in the ecosystems the ocean supports. These unchecked activities in the territorial waters of Africa must stop. Fishers of the world unite,” he noted.

News

Edo Rep Member Distances Self From Cultism, Says Allegation Politically Motivated

Published

14 hours ago

June 8, 2025

Editor

By Joseph Ebi Kanjo

Hon. Marcus Onobun, member representing Esan West, Esan Central and Igueben Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, has described as false the rumours making the rounds that he’s involved in Cult-related activities in Iruekpen, Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State.

The Edo rep member, in a disclaimer titled: ‘Re: Disclaimer on Alleged Cult-related Issues in Iruekpen’, which was made available to INFO DAILY on Sunday, said the allegations of his involvement in cultism were not only “false and baseless, unfounded but they also appear to be politically motivated, attempts to tarnish my hard-earned reputation, distraction from the developmental strides we are making, and undermine the trust and confidence the good people of Iruekpen and beyond have reposed in me.”

He stressed, “For the avoidance of doubt, I am not directly or indirectly involved in cultism nor have I ever supported, encouraged, financed, or participated in any activity that promotes it in any form whatsoever.”

Hon. Onobun, who stated that the last time he visited Edo State was 22nd April, 2025, noted that the allegation was to “lay a foundation for their wicked and clandestine plan to silence the opposition.”

He explained that though he got information from a reliable source that there was a clash in the community (Iruekpen) between two indigenes, such clash was never bear his residence but in a brothel.

“I am a firm believer in the rule of law, democratic principles, and peaceful co-existence,” he said.

The Edo rep member, while stating that security and safety of his constituents top is priority, urged the “media and the general public to exercise due diligence and verify facts before spreading information capable of causing panic and reputation damage.”

“The security and safety of our people tops my priorities as a federal lawmaker, as no development sees the light of the day in an unsafe environment, thus, the recently commissioned Police station in Iruekpen community,” he added.

Onobun urged “those behind these malicious fabrications,” to “desist from the politics of character assassination,” noting that “our community deserves leaders and citizens who promote unity, progress, and constructive dialogue not divisiveness and falsehood.”

He added: “I remain committed to the service of my people and to the peace, growth, and development of Iruekpen as my immediate community and the entire federal constituency at large. No amount of smear campaigns will deter me from fulfilling my mandate and standing for truth, justice, and good governance.”