When Hurricane Matthew slammed Haiti last week, it unleashed a new wave of suffering on a country already besieged by challenges. The storm hammered the Caribbean nation's poor and densely populated southern coast, damaging up to 80 percent of homes and leaving at least 350,000 people in need of immediate aid.
Preliminary official estimates put the death toll at 300 as of Saturday, but some media reports quoting local authorities put the figure at more than 800 _ a devastating blow to a nation already traumatized by social, economic and political woes.
Since 2000, Haiti's 10.4 million people have endured repeated natural disasters, health crises and political unrest. And Haiti remains one of the world's poorest nations.
