Nigeria Donates $1 Million Dollars To Haiti As Aftershock Hits City

PHOTO: A SHELTER IN PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI. IMAGE: AP.

San Francisco Jan 20, (THEWILL) - Nigeria has donated $1million dollars to the people and government of Haiti to alleviate the pains of the huge 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the country a week ago. Senate President David Mark made this known on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday.

Mark's announcement came after Senator Bassey Ewa Henshaw (Cross River State) sponsored a motion to donate funds to the Haitians.

He informed his colleagues that Vice President Goodluck Jonathan told him that Nigeria had already donated $1 million dollars.

Senators also agreed that each of them would voluntarily contribute additional funds towards assisting the Haitians.

Not to be outdone, members of the House of Representatives agreed to donate N20, 000 naira each to the Haitians. The 360 member-lawmakers would raise N7.2 million naira for the devastated country.

Meanwhile, a powerful 6.1 magnitude aftershock struck Haiti on Wednesday, only eight days after the country's capital, Port-au-Prince was hit by a major quake.

The new quake hit at 6:03 a.m. (11.03 GMT). The U.S. Geologic Survey said the quake was centered about 56 kilometers Northwest of Port-au-Prince and was 22 kilometers below the surface.

No casualties have been reported for the aftershock, which shook buildings and sent people running and screaming for help.

So far, an estimated 200,000 people have been killed, with over 200,000 injured and more than 1.3 million people homeless.

The United States has deployed many emergency search and rescue teams to assist with locating and tracking victims still buried under debris.

The Red Cross, Unicef and other charity organizations have raised millions of dollars for the country.

Earlier this week, CNN and Larry King collaborated with American entertainment stars including Sean Combs, Jennifer Lopez, Ryan Seacrest, Paula Abdul, Seal and others, to raise about $17 million dollars in a two-hour Larry King Live Show.