A week after the earthquake that devastated southwestern Haiti, killing nearly 2,200 people, meeting the basic needs of the victims remains a challenge for the authorities, at a time when many residents are struggling to find drinking water and food.

It only took a few seconds on Saturday, August 14, in the face of the magnitude 7.2 earthquake, for tens of thousands of residents, some of the most vulnerable in the country, to lose everything they had.

In the streets, they have struggled daily to find water and food as humanitarian convoys begin to distribute basic foodstuffs, but in often insufficient quantities.

Informal distributions of humanitarian aid took place on Friday in Les Cayes, Haiti's third largest city, largely destroyed by the earthquake, often giving rise to fights in the crowd.

Carried out by individuals without logistical knowledge, donations were distributed at the foot of the trucks, the bags of rice thrown at the crowd without the beneficiaries having been previously identified as being in a vulnerable situation, noted a photographer from AFP.

In Les Cayes, half of a convoy of two trucks was looted by unidentified individuals before Haitian police intervened.

The rest of the goods were distributed from the premises of the police station in great confusion, added the photographer.

Marcel François, he spends his days in front of the ruins of his house, by the road connecting the airport to the city center of Les Cayes.

"I see a lot of authorities parading, processions of officials who spin with their sirens, big NGO cars. Trucks also pass but I did not see anything happen on me", laments to AFP the 30-year-old man who, like many disaster victims, owes his survival only to the generosity of loved ones.

"Rebuild for the better"

It is in this city that came Friday the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed, on a visit to the country.

"We have heard what the needs are, from those on the ground. There are many gaps and we remain committed to supporting you," said the Nigerian diplomat.

"We saw an incredible moment of unity in the response to the earthquake, so we believe this can be turned into an opportunity to build back for the better," she said.

The idea of ​​"rebuilding for the better" is nothing new for Haitians, to whom the UN had already made this promise after the 2010 earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 people.

The secretary general at the time, Ban Ki-moon, but also Bill Clinton, then UN special envoy for Haiti, jointly advocated the concept of "build back better", but the slogan did not apply. was not materialized, and the promised reconstruction was not forthcoming in a disaster-ravaged capital.

Elections "as quickly as possible"

The most influential foreign power in Haiti, the United States has announced the deployment of 200 Marines to the country.

The eight helicopters that the US military has made available continue to evacuate the most seriously injured from the areas affected by the earthquake to more specialized hospitals in the country, in Port-au-Prince or in the city of Mirebalais.

If the Haitian Civil Protection is deploying its efforts to coordinate as well as possible the aid that flows from many actors, international as well as national, this new natural disaster has struck Haiti at a time when the country is in the midst of a political crisis. 

It has been barely a month since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in the middle of the night in his residence by an armed commando group made up of Colombian mercenaries.

The investigation to determine the sponsors of this attack has stalled. 

Before his murder, the much maligned head of state governed alone, by decree, because he had not organized the legislative elections which should have been held in 2018. 

During an extraordinary session of the Organization of American States (OAS) on Friday, Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry promised to work for the organization of national elections "as quickly as possible".

"I made the commitment to do everything possible to put my country back on the rails of a functioning democracy with the organization, as soon as possible, of good free and transparent elections. It is imperative that we return quickly to the normal functioning of democratic institutions ", he declared by videoconference. 

Far removed from these political considerations, the victims of the earthquake of August 14, who are impatient to receive enough to live, begin to occupy free land in urban centers while the Haitian authorities want to avoid the creation of such informal camps for disaster victims. , symbol of the chaos that followed the 2010 earthquake.

With AFP

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