(Norwegian Church Aid and local partner organisation distributes hygiene kits to residents of Bocozelle, north of Port-au-Prince, where cholera is widespread. Residents were also taught how to minimise the risk of being infected. Photo: Arne Grieg Riisnæs/NCA)
As Haiti's cholera epidemic claims more lives by the day, the population is growing ever more frustrated at the nation's authorities, which protesters claim to be entirely powerless. The UN peacekeeping forces have been attacked, a police station has been burned, and the violence looks set to continue in the run up to the country's elections November 28th.
Last week, president René Préval met with international organisations in response to their request for assistance. No real progress was made. Today, Haitian authorities confirm that over 900 have now succumbed to the deadly cholera strain that is now spreading rapidly throughout the poor country. As many as 15,000 have been infected, although NGOs working in Haiti claim that actual numbers could be much higher.
Cholera has now spread to six of Haiti's ten districts. 27 deaths have been registered in the capital city Port-au-Prince. Norwegian Church Aid has been to the city of Artibonite in order to gain a better overview of the situation at the epidemic's core, which according to UN sources could infect as many as 200,000 Haitians in the weeks and months to come.
Contact:
- Arne Grieg Riisnæs, press contact recently returned from Haiti:
Tel. +47 932 50 257