From natural disasters to humanitarian emergencies

On 12th January 2010, Haiti was hit by a powerful earthquake with the epicentre about 25 km from the capital Port-au-Prince. The death toll was well over a 100,000 people, and some estimates put the number to be above 300,000.

During the rebuilding phase, and to maintain law and order, the UN deployed peacekeeping forces that were in addition to the existing UN mission in the country. In late October, a group of peacekeepers arrived from Nepal. In Nepal, these peacekeepers were exposed to cholera and some were suffering from it (but probably not showing any symptoms). No tests were done before or after their arrival in Haiti, even though such a test would have cost less than three dollars per person and were widely available. In Haiti, these peacekeepers from Nepal were housed in poorly constructed facilities, and soon one of the sewage reservoirs burst and entered one of the main waterways in Haiti. An outbreak of cholera soon engulfed the country to the extent that over 2,000 people died in just the first month alone.

Before 2010, Haiti had never had a cholera outbreak in its entire history, and there was no local knowledge or infrastructure to contain the disease. This was also the time when the country was still suffering from the aftermath of the devastating earthquake. The cholera outbreak continued unabated and caused immense suffering in the country. By July 2011, the rate of spread of the disease was about one person getting infected every minute. Over the course of the next few years, more than ten thousand people had died and more than half a million had gotten sick. The UN continued to deflect blame for nearly a decade, and even when it offered a weak apology (after there was irrefutable genomic evidence), there was no compensation for the victims. It pledged $400 million for rebuilding, but even after a decade since the outbreak only 5% of the total amount had been raised, and less than 1% ($3 million) had been spent on rebuilding. Countless families still bear those scars. Yet, most countries that champion care and concern for the poor of the world on paper have moved on. Cholera in Haiti is no longer on their radar.

Late last month, a terrifying earthquake hit Myanmar. The death toll is already in several thousands, but analysts fear that it will continue to rise. The final number may never be known. Here, a different dynamic is playing out. The military junta that is in power, and locked in a bloody civil war, has a terrible record of weaponising aid. In previous natural disasters such as Cyclone Mocha in 2023 and Typhoon Yagi in 2024, the military allowed aid to reach only the areas it controlled, while blocking it in parts that it no longer had control over. There is fear that the same story may play out again, thereby creating a painful and long-term humanitarian crisis for millions of poor people on the heels of a natural disaster.

The situations in Haiti and the evolving situation in Myanmar are different in many ways, and those differences need to be recognised. But there are also important similarities that should trouble us. In both cases, the affected community suffers not just because of a natural disaster, but because how aid is managed, delivered and denied. People end paying a price not just because of the catastrophic event, but because those in power, or with power, fail to see the humanity and suffering of people that do not care about. The evolution of a natural disaster into a chronic humanitarian emergency is neither automatic nor inevitable. It is shepherded by decisions and decision-makers. It is built on decisions around who is worthy of support and who is dispensable.