More than 300,000 people were killed when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck near the capital, Port-au-Prince. Survivors received little of the more than $10 billion in aid that Haiti supposedly received in the aftermath.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/AP Photo/D. N. Chery
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Haiti struggles 10 years after catastrophic earthquake
A decade after an earthquake leveled buildings in Haiti in January 2010, many people in the country still struggle against poverty and corruption. But there is still some hope that change is coming.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/D. N. Chery
A country in ruins
On January 12, 2010, shortly before 5 p.m., a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. The destruction was catastrophic. In some areas, 90% of buildings collapsed. At least 200,000 people were killed and more than a million were made homeless. It caused $6.6 billion (€5.9 billion) worth of damage – more than the country's entire gross domestic product.
Image: AP
Disaster in a crisis-ridden nation
January 2011. Crosses on a mass grave near the capital, Port-au-Prince. The earthquake hit a country already plagued with crises. In 2010, Haiti was the poorest nation in the western hemisphere — and it still is. It suffers from overpopulation and corruption. Natural disasters are not uncommon. After the earthquake, thousands more died in a cholera epidemic.
Image: A.Shelley/Getty Images
Global solidarity
A carefree moment in a camp for earthquake victims in March 2010. Help came from the UN, NGOs, and private individuals. Money for reconstruction flowed in from around the world. Bert Hoffmann, a political scientist at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies, told DW that many aid organizations were very effective at a local level, for example in building houses, supporting people in need.
Image: AP
Problematic aid
US food aid donations provided short-term help to those affected during the emergency and immediate aftermath of the earthquake, Hoffmann said. "However, in the long term, free rice from the USA massively bankrupted the Haitian rice farmers," he added. "This kind of aid did not create sustainable structures for the country; it increased its dependence."
Image: AP
Crisis after the crisis
Waiting for work: Ten years after the earthquake, quality of life for the majority of Haitians has not improved. More than half the population lives below the poverty line of $2 per day. According to the German aid organization Welthungerhilfe, 35% of Haitians rely on food aid. The aid organization Doctors Without Borders said basic health care is inadequate.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Blackwell
Tödliche Proteste
For the past year and a half, mass unemployment, inflation, criminality and cronyism have driven Haitians onto the streets — as seen here in November. Many people have been killed in clashes between police and protesters. Pirmin Spiegel, director-general of the German Catholic development agency MISEREOR, recently warned that there was an increasing danger that civil war would break out in Haiti.
Image: imago images/Agencia EFE/J. M. Herve
Moise refuses to go
The anger on the streets is directed at President Jovenel Moise (center), in office since February 2017. The opposition accuses him of embezzling money from a solidarity fund. Moise rejects the allegations and refuses to resign. When the Haitian parliament reconvenes on January 13, most of its representatives will have come to the end of their mandate. Moise could, in theory, rule by decree.
The opposition is divided, but activists want to keep fighting for change. "We need a government that responds to our needs," said 31-year-old Rese Domini (photo) from the organization MONEGAF. In December, Velina Charlier, a 39-year-old activist, told DW that she was demanding, "Moise's resignation, an anti-corruption trial and a radical change in the system."
Image: Reuters/V. Baeriswyl
'Europe is silent'
Aid organizations are calling on the international community to take action. Local products should be prioritized for food aid "to stimulate the domestic economy," Welthungerhilfe explained in November. MISEREOR's director-general called on Germany and the European Union to push for political change in Haiti.
December 2019, Port-au-Prince: Two friends on the beach. Political scientist Bert Hoffmann said the ongoing crisis should not obscure the existence of "many family and local structures that are functioning" in Haiti. The Caribbean state is "not hell on earth," he said. "It's a very poor but generally peaceful country that has a great culture."
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/D. N. Chery
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Haitian President Jovenel Moise on Sunday placed a floral wreath at a memorial to the hundreds of thousands of victims killed in a devastating earthquake.
"We ate together, we slept together, we cried together, we prayed together," said Moise. "[But now] hatred and discord have filled our hearts … Today we need that solidarity, that unity" the nation had in the aftermath of the quake.
On January 12, 2010, a disastrous 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck on the outskirts of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, killing more than 300,000 people, according to government figures.
More than 1.5 million others were left without homes, triggering an unprecedented humanitarian situation on the island. Foreign government and international organizations pledged billions of dollars in aid but most economists agree that little actually made its way to the victims.
"It's a lost decade, totally lost," Haitian economist Kesner Pharel told Agence France-Presse. "The capital has not been rebuilt, but our poor governance is not the exclusive responsibility of the local authorities."
"At the international level we have not seen a mechanism for managing aid that would allow the country to benefit," he said.
It remains unclear how much aid Haiti received in the wake of the earthquake, but most experts say it was more than $10 billion (€9 billion).
Haiti remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Nearly 60% of the population lives on less than $2.40 per day.
Many of the survivors left Port-au-Prince for places such as Canaan, which lies about an hour's drive outside of the capital. In Canaan, what was once a pristine hillside has been converted into a sprawling network of shanties now home to more than 300,000 people.
"If we were to have a quake of the same magnitude, the results would be the same," said Pharel. "The country was never rebuilt, and we're back to square one."
Haiti struggles 10 years after catastrophic earthquake
A decade after an earthquake leveled buildings in Haiti in January 2010, many people in the country still struggle against poverty and corruption. But there is still some hope that change is coming.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/D. N. Chery
A country in ruins
On January 12, 2010, shortly before 5 p.m., a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. The destruction was catastrophic. In some areas, 90% of buildings collapsed. At least 200,000 people were killed and more than a million were made homeless. It caused $6.6 billion (€5.9 billion) worth of damage – more than the country's entire gross domestic product.
Image: AP
Disaster in a crisis-ridden nation
January 2011. Crosses on a mass grave near the capital, Port-au-Prince. The earthquake hit a country already plagued with crises. In 2010, Haiti was the poorest nation in the western hemisphere — and it still is. It suffers from overpopulation and corruption. Natural disasters are not uncommon. After the earthquake, thousands more died in a cholera epidemic.
Image: A.Shelley/Getty Images
Global solidarity
A carefree moment in a camp for earthquake victims in March 2010. Help came from the UN, NGOs, and private individuals. Money for reconstruction flowed in from around the world. Bert Hoffmann, a political scientist at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies, told DW that many aid organizations were very effective at a local level, for example in building houses, supporting people in need.
Image: AP
Problematic aid
US food aid donations provided short-term help to those affected during the emergency and immediate aftermath of the earthquake, Hoffmann said. "However, in the long term, free rice from the USA massively bankrupted the Haitian rice farmers," he added. "This kind of aid did not create sustainable structures for the country; it increased its dependence."
Image: AP
Crisis after the crisis
Waiting for work: Ten years after the earthquake, quality of life for the majority of Haitians has not improved. More than half the population lives below the poverty line of $2 per day. According to the German aid organization Welthungerhilfe, 35% of Haitians rely on food aid. The aid organization Doctors Without Borders said basic health care is inadequate.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Blackwell
Tödliche Proteste
For the past year and a half, mass unemployment, inflation, criminality and cronyism have driven Haitians onto the streets — as seen here in November. Many people have been killed in clashes between police and protesters. Pirmin Spiegel, director-general of the German Catholic development agency MISEREOR, recently warned that there was an increasing danger that civil war would break out in Haiti.
Image: imago images/Agencia EFE/J. M. Herve
Moise refuses to go
The anger on the streets is directed at President Jovenel Moise (center), in office since February 2017. The opposition accuses him of embezzling money from a solidarity fund. Moise rejects the allegations and refuses to resign. When the Haitian parliament reconvenes on January 13, most of its representatives will have come to the end of their mandate. Moise could, in theory, rule by decree.
The opposition is divided, but activists want to keep fighting for change. "We need a government that responds to our needs," said 31-year-old Rese Domini (photo) from the organization MONEGAF. In December, Velina Charlier, a 39-year-old activist, told DW that she was demanding, "Moise's resignation, an anti-corruption trial and a radical change in the system."
Image: Reuters/V. Baeriswyl
'Europe is silent'
Aid organizations are calling on the international community to take action. Local products should be prioritized for food aid "to stimulate the domestic economy," Welthungerhilfe explained in November. MISEREOR's director-general called on Germany and the European Union to push for political change in Haiti.
December 2019, Port-au-Prince: Two friends on the beach. Political scientist Bert Hoffmann said the ongoing crisis should not obscure the existence of "many family and local structures that are functioning" in Haiti. The Caribbean state is "not hell on earth," he said. "It's a very poor but generally peaceful country that has a great culture."
