Twenty dwellings around the place of the explosion also caught fire as a result of the deflating, leaving a heavier assessment.
Le Monde with AFP.
A new catastrophe touched Haiti, already regularly struck by natural disasters and shaken by security, political and economic crises. Tuesday, December 14, at least sixty people died in the explosion of a tanker truck in Cap-Haitien, the second city of this Caribbean country. Many others have been injured and are currently in critical condition.
According to Patrick Almonor, the deputy mayor of Cap-Haitian, the tanker driver would have tried to avoid a collision with a motor-taxi, thus losing the control of his vehicle, which has reversed. Inhabitants were then rushed to the truck, despite the warnings of the driver, to recover the fuel that Haiti is sorely lacking, before being, for many killed in the explosion. Prime Minister Haitian, Ariel Henry, announced on Twitter Three days of national mourning to “the memory of the victims of this tragedy which isndes the whole Haitian nation”.
“Twenty” dwellings around the place of explosion also caught fire as a result of the deflating, according to Mr. Almonor, leaving a heavier assessment. “We are not yet able to give details about the number of victims inside the houses,” he said. The identification of victims can also take time. “It is impossible to identify them” at the moment, explained the deputy mayor because of their burns.
At least forty serious injuries
For the time being, health services, submerged, are trying to deal with the influx of patients requiring urgent care. “We do not have the means to take care of the many seriously burned people,” said a nurse from the Justinian hospital, where many wounded were transported: “I’m afraid we do not arrive at all Saving. “” People are burned at more than 60% of the body surface, “said Dr. Kalhil Turenne, which counts forty serious and two dead in this hospital.
In the face of the urgency, the Prime Minister also announced on Twitter the deployment of campaign hospitals “to provide the necessary care for the victims of this terrible explosion”.
Fuel shortage
Haiti, a poor country of the Caribbean, is in the grip of a strong shortage of fuels due to the control of the gangs on a part of the supply circuit. In recent months, the armed tapes greatly increased their grip on Port-au-Prince by controlling the roads that lead to the three oil terminals in the country.
More than a dozen fuel transport vehicles have been diverted by gangs that have demanded heavily for the release of drivers. This arouses a strong grumpy in the population: Haiti has been the theater on Monday demonstrations against the increase in price prices.
Since October, telecommunications networks and the media have drastically reduced their activities across the country because they can not find fuel for thermal generators that feed the electricity antennas. This energy crisis also disabled the functioning of the rare hospital structures across the country.