Inmarsat-sponsored Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) has established a Global Xpress satellite broadband connection at the first humanitarian coordination centre in Les Cayes, one of the areas most affected by a powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit south-west Haiti on 14 August.

The coordination centre is the main hub for humanitarian operations and will provide vital satellite communications for all relief organisations on the ground, including the United Nations, the Civil Protection, the National Centre for Emergency Operations (COUN) and Help.ngo.

“We joined the first convoys heading to the south-west of the country and provided satellite connectivity at the operations coordination centre which was being set up here in Les Cayes. This connection makes information sharing more reliable between the local team of the National Civil Protection Agency (DGPC) and the national level in Port-au-Prince. It also speeds up the establishment of the coordination centre with the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team,” said Florent Bervas, Head of Mission for TSF in Haiti