Haiti’s government raised the confirmed earthquake death toll to 150 000 on Monday, and said the figure could double as reports from outside the capital are collated.
Aid agencies said food, water and basic supplies were reaching more people but that clinics were also starting to see more infections and complications from amateur medical treatment. Médecins sans Frontières said it was shifting its focus from surgery to the “next level” of need.
The confirmed death toll in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area alone had topped 150 000, said Haiti’s communications minister, and more bodies remained uncounted.
“Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble — 200 000, 300 000?” said Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue. “Who knows the overall death toll?”
Corpses are still visible in the rubble in neighbourhoods such as Petionville, Gressier, Carrefour and downtown.
The government’s figures were based on data from CNE, a state company which has collected and buried corpses in mass graves in Port-au-Prince and a semi-rural wasteland, Titanyen, outside the capital.
It was a sharp spike from Saturday when the UN said the government had confirmed 111 481 bodies. Before Monday’s statement authorities had estimated a total of 200 000 from the 12 January 7-magnitude quake. Up to three million people are estimated to need aid. Another earthquake measuring 4,7 in magnitude struck on Sunday night 32km from Port-au-Prince, at a shallow depth of 4km, the US Geological Survey said, although there were no immediate reports of damage from the quake.
The US military expanded its role when a convoy of army Humvees, accompanied by Brazilian UN troops, delivered food packs and water to Cité Soleil, the capital’s most notorious slum. “The aid we have available is being pushed out,” Lieutenant General Ken Keen, commander of the US military operation in Haiti, told Reuters. But the need is tremendous.”
With 13 000 personnel in Haiti and on ships offshore, the US military has overtaken the UN’s peacekeeping mission’s capacity. Last Friday it formally obtained broad authority to control air and sea ports and secure roads to support relief efforts.
Cuba’s Fidel Castro joined a chorus of leftist Latin leaders who have accused the US of “occupying” the republic under an aid banner. Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez said: “Obama, send vaccinations, kid, send vaccinations. Each soldier that you send there should carry a medical kit instead of hand grenades and machine guns.” – guardian.co.uk