Cameroon joins Haiti relief effort

YAOUNDE—More than half a dozen Cameroonian civilian and military people are helping in the relief effort in Haiti, after the mighty earthquake that shattered the capital Port au Prince, leaving more than 200, 000 people feared dead. The Cameroon government is also sending financial aide, adding to a huge outpouring of support from the international community to a country that barely worked, even before the calamity that has left millions of survivors without food, water and other basic needs. Meantime, the Cameroon Red Cross, in association with television channel Canal 2 International, Wednesday (26 January) evening organises a televised fundraising for Haiti. The Cameroon OIC is also leading efforts for the collections of support within the Buea municipality, in response to an SOS from its parent OIC International, which will channel donations to needy people in Haiti. “The Buea community is being urged to show solidarity to the suffering people of Haiti,” said Mbella Moki, the mayor of Buea, who will chair OIC fundraising efforts. The global response to help relief efforts has been tremendous, driven by the media and new technology like mobile text messaging. By Tuesday, donations from ordinary people in the USA had reached US$150 million (about CFA 65 billion). About US$12 million was raised through text messaging alone. Hopes of finding more survivors dwindled further Tuesday, after the rescue operation was officially called off, nearly two weeks into the disaster. Many, though, still feared more people were trapped in the rubble, after several miraculous rescues. In one dramatic case, a man was found alive after 12 days under mounts of concrete and metal. Across Port au Prince small funerals were being held by families that were lucky to find the bodies of their relatives. Most people were presumed dead, either buried in mass graves before they could be identified or hidden away in rubble. At least 150,000 bodies had been buried in mass graves Sunday, according to the Haitian government and relief organisations. The final death toll remained hard to project but was set to rise. “Nobody knows how many bodies are buried in the rubble — 200,000? 300,000? Who knows the overall death toll?” said Haiti’s communications minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue on Sunday. Haitians may have borne the brunt but victims came from all nationalities. It is now believed at least one Cameroonian woman was killed and another badly injured, all of them working with the United Nations in the impoverished country. Families from across the world, with relatives in the country made frantic efforts to reach them. In what could be termed glimpses of joy amid the horror, some people were able to reconnect with relatives, aided at times by television pictures and voluntary search media crews. Attention is now being shifted from the dead and any rescues to the plight of survivors and the future of Haiti. One of the poorest countries in the world, Haitians could barely get along, even in the best of moments. Some analysts say, the calamity provides a new page from where to rebuild the country. In the meantime, relief work will continue. Survivors badly need food, water, shelter and medication. “We wish we could do more, quicker,” said U.N. World Food Program chief Josette Sheeran, visiting Port-au-Prince. About 200,000 people have been fleeing the city in search of better conditions elsewhere in the country and even abroad. Authorities here said at least 12 Cameroonian policemen out on UN missions were now in Haiti, in addition to several others working with relief organisations. Two Cameroonian soldiers on a US warship also joined in the relief effort, when their vessel was diverted to the disaster zone.