Symbolic imageColombia searches for hundreds missing as quake toll passes 285
Rescuers are still searching for hundreds of missing people five days after Colombia's magnitude 7.4 quake, with the death toll put at 281 to 287.
The quake struck the department of Chocó on Monday, 10 August, and destroyed close to 13,000 homes, AFP reported. Rescuers in Pereira spent Friday trying to free a man found alive under a collapsed hotel. David Tamayo, head of the national disaster relief agency, said the chances of finding survivors would diminish, but ordered crews "not to rest until we find all the missing persons". Cali extended its search by 48 hours before shifting to recovery.
Decay under the rubble
Bodies still trapped in the debris, in temperatures near 90 degrees Fahrenheit and with water pipes destroyed, are creating a public health emergency, El Tiempo reported. Epidemiologist Ariel Emilio Cortés told the paper the water supply could be contaminated and bacterial epidemics could spread.
Buenaventura feels passed over
In the Pacific port of Buenaventura, where about 19 people died and 540 homes collapsed, residents told Al Jazeera that neither the municipality nor the government had come. Poverty there is more than double Cali's rate, and locals fear aid will favour the provincial capitals.
Other opinions
Jacobin reports that Bogotá recognised Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights hours after the quake and took in rescue teams only from the US, Ecuador, El Salvador and Israel; the Jerusalem Post foregrounds a $200 million World Bank disbursement.