The lawyers representing the victims of the cholera epidemic in Haiti are giving the United Nations 60 days to discuss compensation, after evidence strongly suggests that UN soldiers were responsible for spreading the disease.

A UN cholera expert, Danielle Lantagne, confirmed to the BBC that the accusations of peacekeeping soldiers polluting the waters with cholera is “most likely” to be true.

Petionville Golf Club camp during cholera outbreak (Photo: Kateryna Persus for Oxfam)

So far, evidence surrounding the cholera outbreak indicates that peacekeepers from Nepal unintentionally spread the disease in the main water area of Haiti.

The outbreak is thought to have took place near a camp of UN soldiers, where there were leaking sewage pipes. Human waste was also dumped near a river outside of the camp.

Haiti’s cholera epidemic, which began in 2010 after the major earthquake hit, has killed 8,000 people, while 800,000 remain ill.

Compensation claims will total billions of dollars if the UN fails to enter into talks within the next 60 days.

It is believed that lawyers will lodge their claims for US$100,000 for families of those who have died, and US$50,000 for those who remain ill.

The UN has always denied its responsibility for the cholera epidemic.

Former President for life Jean Claude Duvalier of Haiti and his wife Michele Bennett. (Photo by Jacoboal, on Wikimedia Commons)

Jean-Claude Duvalier, Haiti’s former dictator, appeared in Port-Au-Prince’s Supreme Court for the first time yesterday after avoiding previous summons. A panel is to decide if he should be charged with human rights abuses during his brutal regime from 1971-86.

Many have called for Duvalier, known as “Baby Doc”, to be brought to trial and activists and opponents applauded as the former ruler arrived for the hearing.

“The fact Duvalier is in court is an important victory for his victims who never gave up hope of seeing him in court and for the Haitian people who have the right to know what happened during the dark years of his dictatorship,” said Reed Brody, counsel and spokesperson for Human Rights Watch.

After ignoring three previous orders to attend court, Duvalier arrived yesterday after the judge warned that he would be jailed if he failed to show up for a fourth hearing. “I have a positive record and this is in all areas,” Duvalier, who often mumbled responses, told the court. When asked if he was aware that political prisoners were locked up, tortured and killed under his regime, he said, “Murderers exist in all countries.”

Attorneys for plaintiffs also asked if he knew about the political prisoners at Fort Dimanche, a notorious prison. “All kinds of delinquents were there,” Duvalier said. Thousands were imprisoned, tortured or killed for opposing the regime. Duvalier became president at the age of 19 following the death of his father, “Papa Doc” François Duvalier. “Baby Doc” was uprooted in 1986 after a popular revolt. He has spent the last 25 years in exile in France.

More than 5,000 new cholera cases in the North, South and West of Haiti have killed 44 people according to the Ministry of Health.

General Director of the Health Office Guyléne Raymond said in a press conference, “Cholera remains a priority for health authorities. It is a major public health problem”. He said Haitian authorities are partnering with international organisations to fight cholera.

The cholera outbreak began in October 2010 after the major earthquake hit Haiti. More than 7,600 people have died since the epidemic began and over 331,000 people have been hospitalised according to official statistics.

Water contamination due to flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy led to the rise in deaths, according to Donald Francois, the leader of the fight against cholera in Indian territory. Francois also said that health centres have sufficient health materials to treat people with cholera symptoms.

Haiti is still dealing with the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake; more than 350,000 earthquake survivors are still living in camps.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced today, that over 2 million people will suffer from food shortage, if immediate actions to fight the consequences of hurricane Sandy do not take place. OCHA called on all international countries to support Haiti.

Local authorities already expressed their concerns about widespread crop rotting a week ago. Latest reports from Haitian officials  confirmed 54 dead and 22 disappeared after the recent natural disaster, which is already the third in the last 2 years.

Around 17 thousand Haitians were evacuated from their homes, and over 21 thousand houses were destroyed by the hurricane. The Southern zone of the country remains inaccessible by land having suffered from heavy floods.

Local authorities also warn about the new cholera outbreak, that began in October 2010 after the powerful earthquake. The outbreak spread to all provinces of Haiti, killing 7,565 people by 4th October 2012 and hospitalizing a further 531,000 or 5% of the population. Specialists blame authorities for the poor distribution of health supplies and unsanitary conditions in the overcrowded hospitals. Neighbouring countries Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Cuba also reported a few cholera cases in 2010 and 2011.

Fears are growing of a food shortage in Haiti, after Hurricane Sandy’s torrential rains and strong winds caused severe crop damage.

Local authorities are deeply concerned that the large quantity of rainfall may cause widespread crop rotting. The country’s farming industry was still coming to terms with the damage suffered during the earthquake in 2010 and then Hurricane Isaac last year.

Officials say that more than 70% of crops were destroyed in the southern part of the country, including maize, bananas and plantain.

Out of all the countries affected, Haiti has been hit the hardest by the storm, which has claimed more than 50 lives and left around 200,000 homeless. It is the third natural disaster to affect the Caribbean country in the last two years.

Sandy was classified as a category one hurricane when it hit Haiti and caused serious flooding and damaged buildings. Prime minister Laurent Lamothe called it “a disaster of major proportions”.

Aid workers also fear that flooding and unsanitary conditions could lead to a sharp rise in cases of cholera, the water based disease that has plagued the country in recent years.

Sixty five people have so far been confirmed dead on the wake of hurricane Sandy, which swept through the Caribbean countries of Cuba, Jamaica, Bahamas, and Haiti over the weekend.

The Haitian government has confirmed a death toll of 52, mostly in the southern and western regions of the country, though at least 15 people remain lost and it is estimated that it will take a few more days to assess the full extent of the damage.

The storm has also caused an extensive loss of crops in the south of Haiti, both in commercial plantations and subsistance farming. Prime minister Laurent Lamothe indicated that ”most of the crops that were left after hurricane Isaac (in August) have been destroyed by Sandy.” Kechner Toussaint, mayor of the southern municipality of Abricots, said that ”we’ll have famine in the coming days. It’s an agricultural disaster.”

There is widespread concern that the loss of crops could increase food prices. The price of food has already been rising in the past few months, prompting a number of protests throughout the country.

Haitian authorities have also stated that some 18,000 families lost their homes, many of whom had already lost their previous homes in the 2010 earthquake. The Pan-American Health Organisation has warned about a possible new outbreak of cholera in the country, as 86 new cases were detected in the Port-au-Prince camp where the people displaced by the earthquake are living.

Whilst Haiti was the worst affected country in the region, other countries have also endured the consequences of hurricane Sandy. In Cuba, 11 people died and the provinces of Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba, Granma, and Holguín suffered infrastructure damage, power cuts, and difficulties in accessing clean drinking water and food. The hurricane also affected the coffee crops in the east of the island, and destroyed banana crops in Jamaica, where a man died just outside of the capital, Kingston. One person has been reported dead in Bahamas.

Hurricane Sandy is expected to hit the east coast of the US within the next few hours.

A study in Haiti has revealed that there is a high probability that the cholera outbreak that has plagued the nation for the past two years, was caused by infected members of a UN stabilization mission (MINUSTAH).

Dr. Daniele Lantagne, a US cholera expert, said after studying new scientific data that the “most likely” source of the epidemic was recently arrived UN soldiers from Nepal, where cholera is widespread.  The investigation found that the cholera strain in Haiti is an “exact match” with that in Nepal.

The new evidence is a huge boost to victims’ relatives, many of whom are claiming multi-billion dollar compensation packages from the UN.

Since the cholera outbreak in late 2010, more than 7,500 people have died from the disease. Cholera is spread when infected faeces gets into drinking water. Haiti’s undeveloped sewage system is not equipped to combat the spread.

With a total of more cases than the entire continent of Africa, it is the largest outbreak of cholera in the world at the moment.  Prior to 2010, Haiti had not recorded a single victim of cholera in over a century. Now, only 2% of Haiti’s population of 10 million have access to safe water.

The new evidence backs up claims made by French scientist Renaud Piarroux in 2011 that the UN was responsible for the cholera outbreak.

For the third time this month thousands of citizens gathered in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince on Sunday for a protest against Michel Martelly’s government and the poor living standards of the nation.

This is just one in a series of protests that has shaken the country during the last two weeks. The critique is angled at President Martelly and his failed promises to re-build the nation and improve the living standard of the country’s poorest after the devastating earthquake in 2010.  The people are complaining about difficult living conditions and high food prices in one of the poorest nations of Latin America as well as allegations of corruption.

President Martelly, a former pop music star, promised free housing and education while running for presidency. According to the protesters he has not lived up to his promises of improving their life standards after the earthquake. “Martelly must go. It’s only a clique of his friends making money”, said groups of young people from the poorest neighbourhoods of Port-au-Prince while waving football-style red cards to suggest that Martelly has committed too many fouls since he was elected president in 2011.

The mobilisation came 21 years after the military coup the Caribbean country suffered in 1991 and also on the 21^st anniversary of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was deposed for the first time.

Aristide was Haiti’s first democratically elected leader and sat for two terms. He returned to Haiti in 2011 after seven years in exile and has since kept a low profile, which has lead to wide speculations of his political relevance. He remains a champion of Haiti’s poor.

Yesterday four Uruguayan marines were detained on suspicion of abusing a young man whilst on a UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti.

The men are being charged with the “private abuse” of an 18-year-old male and could face up to three years in jail. They are currently awaiting trial.

The case came to light following the release of mobile phone video footage onto the internet in May of last year. The clip appeared to show the four marines abusing and laughing at a naked youth at a UN base in the Southern Haitian city of Port Salut.

Alejandro Guido, the judge in charge of the trial, said there was insufficient evidence to charge the men with rape, despite the accusation. “Private Abuse” is defined by Uruguay’s justice system as “violence or threats to force someone to do, tolerate or allow something to be done”.

The accused, aged between 22 and 29, deny the charges and instead describe the incident as a “prank”.

“The illegal actions of the marines has jeopardized not only their own interests, but also the reputation and image of their country” declared the judge.

Uruguay is one of the largest contributors to the 12,000 strong UN peace keeping force. It has been based in Haiti since 2004, charged with restoring order and offering aid following the overthrow of President Jean Bertrand Artiste and the devastating earthquake in 2010.

One hundred and fifty two Haitian migrants have been detained after their boat ran aground off the coast of the Bahamas during this weekend’s Tropical Storm Isaac.

The island’s National Emergency Management Agency said the boat grounded Saturday near Mangrove Cay, Andros Island as Isaac churned southwest of the Bahamas. The storm is believed to have caused the accident because of the rough seas.

Immigration Director Jack Thompson told the Associated Press that 152 Haitians have been detained but the number could be higher as the exact number of people onboard is still unknown. Some Haitians on the sloop told investigators there were at least 170. They also said they left Cap Haitien, in Haiti, a week ago on 18 August.

A search has been ordered for the water around the coast of Andros Island to look for possible survivors and the bodies of the drowned. However, rough water from the storm has so far kept all boats firmly docked. Investigators will wait until calmer weather to look for the missing people.

Unfortunately this is not the first incident of its kind. Many Haitians travel illegally to the Bahamas in order to accept low-wage jobs or to eventually make their way to the United States.

In June 11 Haitians died after their boat capsized off the Bahaman island Abaco. In December 2011, 38 migrants were found dead when their boat sank off the eastern tip of Cuba. The worst case was in 2009 when a search for 70 Haitian migrants was called off with out any success. Their boat capsized off the Turks and Caicos Islands.