People stand at the site of an explosion in Cap-Haitien, Haiti December 14, 2021, in this still image obtained from Reuters TV footage. Reuters TV/via REUTERS
December 14, 2021
By Gessika Thomas
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) -At least 50 people were killed by a fuel truck explosion in Haiti’s second-largest city Cap-Haitien, the city mayor said on Tuesday.
The local hospital was stretched trying to treat the injured, the total number of whom is still not known,
Mayor Pierre Yvrose told Reuters.
“We need human resources, and also material resources, namely, serum, gauze, and anything that can be used in case of serious burns,” Yvrose said.
The government declared three days of mourning for the dead.
The truck carrying gasoline overturned around midnight in the area of Sanmarie on the eastern end of Cap-Haitien, according to local media.
The Caribbean nation has suffered from a wave of violence this year by gangs who for nearly a month prevented fuel trucks from loading at its main fuel ports, forcing many businesses to shut down. Fuel deliveries resumed last month.
Gangs have grown more powerful since the July assassination of President Jovenel Moise, which created a political vacuum and allowed criminal groups to expand their territory.
“I learned, with desolation and emotion, the sad news of the explosion, last night, in Cap-Haitien, of a tanker truck which transported gasoline,” Henry wrote on Twitter.
(Reporting by Gessika Thomas in Port-au-Prince and Brian Ellsworth in Caracas, Editing by Daniel Flynn and Angus MacSwan)
Source: One America News Network
