Here are the latest statistics for the Haiti earthquake. 200,000 dead and counting, roughly 2% of the population declared dead. Many more of the dead will go uncounted because they were buried by family in backyards and are not a part of any official tally. Also people who died in collapsed building have not been pulled out for counting purposes. They are left in place and an estimated number is given for statistical purposes. The whole population is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. They have seen and experienced death and destruction on a scale that is unimaginable. The pain physical and emotional in beyond belief and will continue for many years and will undoubtedly shape the world view of the survivors.
Haiti earthquake: death toll reaches 200,000
The death toll in the Haiti quake has swelled to 200,000, as angry protests over the slow arrival of aid erupted on the rubble-strewn streets. 04 Feb 2010
A mother sits next her child, who lost a leg in the Haiti earthquake, at a field hospital in Port-au-Prince Photo: AFP / GETTY
More than three weeks after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake, prime minister Jean Max Bellerive said his tiny Caribbean nation had been ravaged by "a disaster on a planetary scale" and detailed the tragic toll suffered by his people.
"There are more than 200,000 people who have been clearly identified as people who are dead," he said, adding that another 300,000 injured had been treated, 250,000 homes had been destroyed and 30,000 businesses lost. At least 4,000 amputations have also been carried out due to horrific crush injuries -- a shocking figure which is likely to strain the impoverished nation's already meager resources for years to come.
Mr Bellerive said he has proposed the formation of an "emergency government" in Haiti to focus on the crisis, but insisted that the authorities, devastated as their ranks have been by the disaster, remained "in control of the situation."
Despite a massive aid operation, a lack of coordination and the sheer extent of the damage have hampered the distribution of food and water leading to mounting tensions among a million people left homeless.
"The Haitian government has done nothing for us, it has not given us any work. It has not given us the food we need," Sandrac Baptiste said bitterly as she left her makeshift tent to join angry demonstrations.
In separate protests after a tense night when shots were fired in the ruined capital Port-au-Prince, some 300 people gathered outside the mayor's office in the once upscale Petionville neighborhood.
"If the police fire on us, we are going to set things ablaze," one of the protesters shouted, raising a cement block above his head.
Another 200 protesters marched toward the US embassy, crying out for food and aid, and about 50 protestors also gathered late Tuesday outside the police headquarters where the Haitian government of President Rene Preval is temporarily installed. "Down with Preval," demonstrators shouted at the president who has only spoken to the people a few times since the disaster struck.
Meanwhile, a group of US Christians were to learn whether they would be charged with trying to illegally take children out of the quake-stricken nation. The 10 Americans from the Idaho-based Baptist group New Life Children's Refuge have been detained in Haiti since the weekend after they tried to take some 33 children out of the country to neighboring Dominican Republic.
Haiti earthquake: death toll reaches 200,000The death toll in the Haiti quake has swelled to 200,000, as angry protests over the slow arrival of aid erupted on the rubble-strewn streets. 04 Feb 2010
A mother sits next her child, who lost a leg in the Haiti earthquake, at a field hospital in Port-au-Prince Photo: AFP / GETTY
More than three weeks after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake, prime minister Jean Max Bellerive said his tiny Caribbean nation had been ravaged by "a disaster on a planetary scale" and detailed the tragic toll suffered by his people.
"There are more than 200,000 people who have been clearly identified as people who are dead," he said, adding that another 300,000 injured had been treated, 250,000 homes had been destroyed and 30,000 businesses lost. At least 4,000 amputations have also been carried out due to horrific crush injuries -- a shocking figure which is likely to strain the impoverished nation's already meager resources for years to come.
Mr Bellerive said he has proposed the formation of an "emergency government" in Haiti to focus on the crisis, but insisted that the authorities, devastated as their ranks have been by the disaster, remained "in control of the situation."
Despite a massive aid operation, a lack of coordination and the sheer extent of the damage have hampered the distribution of food and water leading to mounting tensions among a million people left homeless.
"The Haitian government has done nothing for us, it has not given us any work. It has not given us the food we need," Sandrac Baptiste said bitterly as she left her makeshift tent to join angry demonstrations.
In separate protests after a tense night when shots were fired in the ruined capital Port-au-Prince, some 300 people gathered outside the mayor's office in the once upscale Petionville neighborhood.
"If the police fire on us, we are going to set things ablaze," one of the protesters shouted, raising a cement block above his head.
Another 200 protesters marched toward the US embassy, crying out for food and aid, and about 50 protestors also gathered late Tuesday outside the police headquarters where the Haitian government of President Rene Preval is temporarily installed. "Down with Preval," demonstrators shouted at the president who has only spoken to the people a few times since the disaster struck.
Meanwhile, a group of US Christians were to learn whether they would be charged with trying to illegally take children out of the quake-stricken nation. The 10 Americans from the Idaho-based Baptist group New Life Children's Refuge have been detained in Haiti since the weekend after they tried to take some 33 children out of the country to neighboring Dominican Republic.
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