Qatar’s foreign aid arm has donated some US$500,000 to assist Haiti in the deadly aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.

The assistance will go toward helping the thousands of families in need of relief. It will also help to mitigate the effects of the hurricane on the health care sector, QNA reports.

In a statement, the Qatar Fund for Development (QDF) said it stands beside the affected people in Haiti.

Authorities there are currently working to get food, water and medicine to people living in shelters, as well as burying decomposing bodies in mass graves.

QDF added that it also plans to contribute to the country’s future reconstruction.

Widespread disaster

More than 1,000 people have died in Haiti as a result of last week’s hurricane, Al Jazeera English reports.

The country is now struggling with a rising number of cholera cases due to contaminated water.

“It seems to me like a nuclear bomb went off,” the channel quoted Paul Edouarzin, a UN Environmental Program employee as saying.

“In terms of destruction – environmental and agricultural – I can tell you 2016 is worse than 2010,” he added, referring to a massive earthquake that crippled the country six years ago.

Thousands in the US have also been left homeless by the hurricane, which has killed 17 people there so far, CNN reports.

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