Port-au-Prince

By Andy Gallacher in Americas on January 11th, 2012
The UN mission in Haiti has faced public anger over allegations that Uruguayan troops raped a local teenager [Reuters]

The video of an alleged sexual attack on a Haitian teenager by United Nations peacekeepers from Uruguay went viral months ago; it is everywhere.

Even so, finding the young man who claims to be the victim of the assault seemed like it would be a mammoth task for us in Haiti. This is not the kind of place where you can flip through a phone book or call an operator for help.

Haiti has no solid infrastructure, so I was more than a little surprised when my producer called and told me "We found him".

Tracking down Johnny Jean took less than an hour, a testament to our local staff and a slap in the face for the Uruguayan investigators who claim they can not find him.

Without his testimony, they say, allegations against their soldiers will not be pursued. But that was not the end of the surprises.

By Rob Reynolds in Americas on February 12th, 2010
Photo by Reuters
One month after his world was shattered, Pierre Jean-Claude stands atop the ruins of what once was his home.

About 100 people lived in the building, not far from the centre of Port-au-Prince. Many of them still lie dead beneath the debris.
 
Among them are Jean-Claude's two boys, 16 and eight.
 
"I can't get anything out of the rubble," says Jean-Claude, a thin man who looks much older than his 48 years.
 
"I'd have to sift through four floors of concrete. I have nothing left. It's impossible."
 
The number killed by the earthquake is now estimated at between 212,000 to 230,000. No one really knows for certain how many people died. Many are buried in unmarked mass graves.
 
An estimated 300,000 were injured, the United Nations says.
 
By Rob Reynolds in Americas on February 10th, 2010
Photo by EPA

Demonstrators from a women's group rallied outside Haiti's ruined National Palace on Tuesday.

They said they are angry with their government, and with the United Nations, which they believe isn't doing enough to provide shelter.

"We don't have any tents! We haven't gotten help from anyone," one of the demonstrators told me.

Over and over, Haitians tell foreign visitors they have lost all faith in their government. Many say they are pinning their hopes on their superpower neighbour to the north.

"If the Americans stay, my life will change. Everyone's life will be changed. We want the Americans to take over the country, today," a man selling fruit outside the palace grounds told me.

"We want American people to be in charge, not the Haitians. If Haitians officials are in charge of the aid, they will only help their own families and friends."

By Rob Reynolds in Americas on February 7th, 2010
AFP photo

On Saturday February 6, I returned to Port-au-Prince after an absence of 10 days. I found some things have changed, with some positive signs indicating more aid is flowing and the very first steps towards recovery are under way.

But there are far too many things which appear to have remained the same - or even gotten worse.

Food aid is getting out to more and more hungry and homeless Haitian people. The World Food Programme says 1.8 million people have received food aid, out of a total population of two million in need.

In the makeshift tent camps that have sprung up everywhere in the city there are signs of food in greater abundance - rice especially.

Women-only coupons

A new system of organising food distributions through coupons given only to women has made a difference.

By Rob Reynolds in Americas on January 25th, 2010
Photo from AFP

They step down into the dust and glare: bus after bus load of tired and dazed passengers who have fled the destruction of Port au Prince, and washed up in the hot, noisy town of St-Marc, 150 kilometers north of Port-au-Prince.

Rosebelline Nelson and her four children have left certain misery behind in the ruined city but face an uncertain future. They are staying with family, for now.

“I lost everything in the catastrophe,” Nelson says. “My house, some of my relatives- gone.”

The Nelson family is part of a great and growing exodus of Haitians to smaller towns and country villages.

In St-Marc, people have opened their homes to the newcomers. Just about every family has taken some in. But people are worried the influx will put a severe strain on local resources

By Rob Reynolds in Americas on January 23rd, 2010
Photo by Reuters

High on a mountaintop in the rugged badlands of central Haiti, a starling sight confronts the visitor: an enormous, looming fortress rearing skyward, like a medieval castle whisked from the south of France and dropped in the hills of Hispaniola.

This is the Citadelle Laferriere, the largest fortification in the western hemisphere. It was built between 1805 and 1820 by order of the megalomaniacal Henri Christophe, a leader of the slave revolt of 1791 that ejected the French and made Haiti the first Black republic in world history.

King Christophe, as he styled himself, built the citadel at the cost of thousands of workers' lives. He meant to ensure Haiti would repel an expected French invasion; but Christophe committed suicide (some say with a silver bullet) as mutinous troops closed in.

The citadel remains - the French never came.

Enemies within

By Teymoor Nabili in Middle East on January 22nd, 2010

Juan Cole adds some perspective to the media coverage of the suffering in Haiti:

 

When a relief plane for the Physicians without Borders isn't allowed to land by US military authorities at the airport in Port-au-Prince, there is an outcry.

But Israeli military authorities will not allow any relief planes at all to land in the Gaza Strip (the Israelis destroyed Gaza's airport in 2001).

We cheer when a Haitian child is rescued from the rubble, but ignore the thousands of Gazan children who are suffering malnutrition and being buried by Israeli policy, a policy that is a war crime.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on January 19th, 2010
Photo by Reuters
I was in Lima, Peru on that fateful day in August 2007 when an 8.0 earthquake struck that country. (Wikipedia summary here).
 
A couple hours after reporting on the phone from Lima on the initial shock of it all, the next question was being asked, like it always is after the initial trauma of a quake: "Where is the epicentre?" 
 
Word was getting out on local radio that the epicentre was near a village called Pisco, about 150km south of Lima. But no journalists had actually reached Pisco at that moment. 
 
So myself, and my friends and journalist colleagues Guillermo Galdos, Luis Del Valle and Gino Amadori of Lima-based Pacha Films got in a car shortly after midnight the first day and started motoring towards Pisco.
 
By Omar Chatriwala in Americas on January 17th, 2010

Share your videos about the catastrophe with Al Jazeera
Days after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastated Haiti, relief workers are still struggling to help thousands of people affected.

As international organisations rush to contain a developing humanitarian crisis, Al Jazeera has teams in and around  Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, covering the story as it unfolds. The following are some of the video reports they've filed.

By Omar Chatriwala in Americas on January 13th, 2010
Photo by Carel Pedre via Twitter

At 21:53GMT on Tuesday, the Caribbean nation of Haiti was hit by its strongest earthquake in more than 200 years, causing what is being described as "a catastrophe of major proportions".

Heavy casualties are feared after numerous buildings were levelled by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

This blog post, previously named "Haiti Earthquake: Latest updates", followed events in the immediate aftermath of quake.

Update | Latest blog posts:

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