Britain to reinforce humanitarian support in Haiti
Cholera is spreading at an alarming rate across Haiti. One thousand, one hundred people have already died from the disease, thousands of people are infected and the number continues to rise steeply.
The British Government is sending an assessment mission to Haiti to reinforce our support and monitoring of the cholera outbreak, International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said today.
Cholera is spreading at an alarming rate across Haiti. Around 1,100 people have already died from the disease. Thousands of people are infected and the number continues to rise steeply.
A team of humanitarian experts from the UK Government will arrive in Port au Prince tomorrow to join DFID’s regional humanitarian adviser, who has been on the ground for a week, to assess the international response to date.
As well as monitoring the current crisis in Haiti, UK Government experts will be assisting other Caribbean countries, particularly the UK Overseas Territories, in contingency planning for managing any potential risk of cholera spreading.
Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development said:
“The British Government is very concerned about the situation in Haiti. It is a tragedy that the people of Haiti are being hit by a second emergency when they are still struggling to recover from the earthquake at the start of the year.”
Britain’s humanitarian contribution now exceeds more than £100 million this year, through its contribution to the UN, EU and World Bank.