Haiti’s agony

More than 1,000 people are thought to have died when Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti last Tuesday. The fiercest Caribbean storm in a decade – with winds of up to 145mph and torrential rain – flattened entire villages, ripped up roads and bridges, and left many areas with no clean water, electricity or food. In the aftermath of the storm, the streets filled with floodwaters, human sewage and decomposing bodies. Cholera has since claimed at least 13 lives; aid workers have warned of a possible epidemic. Tens of thousands of Haitians were forced from their homes; and with farmland devastated by the floods, severe food shortages are likely.

The UK Government pledged up to £5m in initial support, while the US sent out three warships carrying marines and humanitarian supplies. Cuba – despite being hit by the storm itself – sent out 38 emergency doctors.

What the editorials said

“Haiti’s trials sometimes seem terrifyingly biblical,” said the Miami Herald. The poorest country in the northern hemisphere was already struggling to get back on its feet after the “horrific earthquake of 2010”, which killed more than 100,000 people and destroyed three-quarters of the capital city, Port-au-prince. In the wake of that disaster, UN peacekeepers accidentally introduced another one, by emptying their sewage into a river. The sewage was carrying cholera from some Nepalese peacekeepers. Cholera is now endemic in Haiti; it has claimed 9,000 lives since 2010.

Back then, the international community pledged “vast sums” – around £9bn – so that Haiti could be “built back better”, said The Independent. It hasn’t happened. Corruption is largely to blame: Haiti ranks at 158 out of 168 countries in Transparency International’s index of corruption. Much of the aid money, “it can be safely assumed, simply lined the pockets of those who needed it least”. This time, aid organisations will have to be much more careful to help the right people.