A fire has swept through an orphanage in Haiti, killing 15 people, 13 of them children. Seven were infants or toddlers, while six were aged roughly six or seven.
The orphanage is run by a US non-profit religious group, and is reported to have been unlicensed.
The cause of the fire is not clear but it is thought that candles were being used after a generator failed.
Al Jazeera’s Andy Gallacher reports.
Haiti is a Caribbean country that shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic to its east. Though it’s still recovering from a 2010 earthquake, many of Haiti’s landmarks dating to the early 19th century remain intact. These include Citadelle la Ferrière, a mountaintop fortress.
Jean-Jacques Dessalines (later Emperor Jacques I), defeated Napoleon Bonaparte’s forces and declared Haiti’s sovereignty on 1 January 1804.
Haiti became the only state in history established by a successful slave revolt. Apart from Alexandre Pétion, the first President of the Republic, all of Haiti’s first leaders were former slaves.
