Yearbook 2010
Haiti. According to
COUNTRYAAH, Haiti
has a population of 11.12 million (2018). The year turned dramatic for poor Haiti. On
January 12, the country was hit by a powerful earthquake
that claimed nearly a quarter of a million people's lives.
More than 300,000 were injured and more than one million
became homeless. Eight days after the main quake, a very
strong post-quake occurred that caused weakened buildings to
collapse. Despite promising promises from the world
community, it took a while before the aid arrived. For
example, at the end of the year, for example, one and a half
million people still lived in temporary camps. The magnitude
of the disaster was reinforced by the fact that Haiti,
already the western hemisphere's poorest country with
enormous social, economic and political problems to solve,
lacked institutional infrastructure to address both
immediate needs and to be able to rebuild the country in the
long run.
In October, a cholera epidemic broke out, which had
already harvested at least 1,400 human lives by the end of
the year. In the long term, the death toll was thought to be
10-20 times higher. Soon enough, troops from Nepal were
accused of the 12,000-strong international peacekeeping UN
force MINUSTAH for being the source of infection,
accusations that were quickly rejected by both the UN and
Nepal's government. During protests against MINUSTAH in
Haiti's second city of Cap Haiti, two protesters were
killed. The epidemic was linked to the precarious conditions
that prevailed in the country after the fatal earthquake in
January and the many storms of the hurricane season that
left behind a collapsed infrastructure and stagnant, unclean
water where the cholera bacteria thrive.
At the beginning of November, Hurricane Tomas struck to
western Haiti. Even though the death toll was low, the
country was still hit by floods and thousands of people were
forced to flee. The pressure on aid organizations that were
already heavily employed by the needs after the January
earthquake increased further.
In the midst of the social crisis, presidential and
congressional elections were held on November 28. The result
was far from clear, and when, after a long delay, it was
published on December 7, violent protests erupted around the
country, resulting in deaths. According to the Election
Commission, 70-year-old Mirlande Manigat, the wife of a
former president, for the opposition party RDNP
(Rassemblement des Democrats Nationaux Progressistes) had
received 31 percent of the vote and Jude Célestin for the
government coalition Inité 22 percent. They both went on to
a second round of elections on January 16, 2011. The outrage
involved suspicions of electoral fraud and, above all, that
the popular pop singer Michel Martelly ("Sweet Micky") for
Repon's Peyizan was maneuvered by political tricks.
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