Fears about the United Nations mission in Haiti

Very troubling reports out of Haiti this morning. The earthquake struck near the country’s main population center, Port-au-Prince, and its surrounding suburbs and slums. Elisabeth Debrosse Delatour, the first lady, said much of Port-au-Prince is destroyed. Cell phone service is available on just one of the major networks; the other remains out, as do landlines and electricity. Hospitals, including the Doctors Without Borders surgical center and many other medical facilities, and essential-service plants were severely damaged in the quake.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calls it a "humanitarian emergency," and countries around the world are racing to deploy emergency aid to the estimated 3 million impacted by the quake — a 7.0 on the Richter scale, with 13 serious aftershocks (the largest of which was a 5.8). 

The quake also reportedly severely damaged the five-story U.N. mission headquarters in Port-au-Prince. As of this morning, there are reports of five U.N. staff dead and more than one hundred missing, many presumed dead, as the quake struck during the workday.  Hedi Annabi, the U.N. Haiti chief, a Tunisian, is feared dead.  The hotel in which much of the U.N. staff lived was also destroyed.

Update: I’ve seen this misreported in a few places, so just to clarify. The U.N.’s peacekeeping chief on Haiti, Alain Le Roy, is safe and speaking with the press. The U.N.’s mission chief, Hedi Annabi, has died.