18 January 2010
The United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon has described last week's earthquake in Haiti as "the most serious humanitarian crisis faced by the United Nations" in decades. The emergency situation is worse than those caused by the Asian tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and cyclone Nargis in Burma, according to Ban. The UN said the earthquake's effects were magnified as it hit a densely populated capital city, disabling local emergency services, destroying communication systems and crippling key government institutions. Meanwhile, the international media organisation Reporters Without Borders has said it intends to set up a press centre for Haitian journalists in Port-au-Prince in order to enable them to function and provide assistance to the population.
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