ReliefWeb

1. On November 20, the Government of Japan decided to contribute approximately 1.2 million dollars (about 97 million yen) through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for the people in the Republic of Haiti, who suffer from the Hurricane “Sandy” strike.

2. Hurricane “Sandy,” which passed near Haiti, caused heavy rain in the country from October 23 (local time) until October 27. With this rain, of the country’s 140 communes, 70 were affected. The Hurricane left 54 people dead, 20 people missing, and 33,760 damaged houses. In addition, about 90,000 hectares of agricultural land have been destroyed.

3. Haiti is still under the reconstruction process from the devastating earthquake in 2010, which left 320,000 people dead and 3.7 million people affected. Approximately 370,000 Haitians are still living in IDP camps. In addition, more than 1.5 million people are facing severe food insecurity, due to the combined effect of Hurricane “Sandy” and Tropical Storm “Isaac” in August. The Government of Haiti, while conducting relief operations of its own in cooperation with international organizations, has continued to request emergency aid from the international community.

4. The Government of Japan decided to provide emergency grant aid considering the need for humanitarian aid for the serious damage caused by the hurricane disaster and also based upon the friendly relations between Japan and the Republic of Haiti.

(* The foregoing is a provisional translation. The date indicated above denotes the date of issue of the original press release in Japanese.)