On Tuesday, January 12, 2010 the country of Haiti experienced a 7.0-magnitude earthquake, reportedly the country’s worst in two centuries. The quake struck about 10 miles, south-west of the capital, Port-au-Prince and was quickly followed by two aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 magnitude.
The catastrophe has resulted in the death of many Haitian and foreign citizens including UN peace keeping personnel who perished with the collapse of the UN headquarters in the country. The Red Cross reports that possibly three million people have been affected.
The Government of Belize is closely monitoring the situation in Haiti to identify how best to coordinate its assistance to the relief and reconstruction efforts of our CARICOM sister nation, including a possible collective approach with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CEDEMA) and the US Southern Command based in Honduras
