A second earthquake has hit Haiti today, which the US Geological Survey has said measured 6.1 with a epicentre 26 miles north - west of Jacmel.

The Guardian reports that:

“Ed Pilkington, the Guardian correspondent in Port-au-Prince, 35 miles from the epicentre, said this morning’s quake was strong enough to be felt in the Haitian capital.

Pilkington tweeted: “just been woken by my bed shaking in #Haiti. another after shock.”

The Associated Press said “wails of terror” could be heard from people as they fled buildings already left in ruins by last week’s quake. It was not immediately possible to assess what additional damage the new quake may have caused.

Last week’s huge quake killed an estimated 200,000 people in Haiti, left 250,000 injured and made 1.5 million people homeless. A massive international aid effort has been launched, but is struggling with overwhelming logistical problems”

We have also a report from the British Red Cross, providing an update on the aid effort.

Situation:

•       The Red Cross estimates 250,000 are in need of urgent assistance. There is no confirmed official death toll, but some reports suggest up to 50,000
•       In the last few days, relief supplies and personnel continued to arrive in Haiti and the surrounding area.
•       Thousands of survivors have been sleeping outdoors, desperate for food, clean water and shelter. Read more on the website
•       Aftershocks are still being felt regularly
•       Cell phones are beginning to function and SMS can be sent and received
Disasters Emergency Committee
•       The DEC Haiti Earthquake Appeal has raised £23m
British Red Cross response
•       The British Red Cross released £200,000 from its Disaster Fund immediately after the earthquake
•       A cash pledge of £1.64m towards relief activities was made on 15 January. On 19 January, £200,000 was allocated to the International Committee of the Red Cross for medical supplies.
•       £420,000 of British Red Cross relief items are being flown in from the Red Cross warehouse in Panama
•       The logistics emergency response unit was deployed to Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic and arrived on 16 January. The team is now fully operational and co-ordinating the delivery of relief items being flown into the Dominican Republic and trucked on to Haiti
•       Listen to a podcast about the logistics emergency response unit
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
•       The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has revised its appeal and is calling for £63m to assist 300,000 people for three years
•       An estimated 130 Federation personnel are in Port-au-Prince supporting the operation
•       Red Cross emergency health kits for 30,000 people have been distributed between central Port-au-Prince hospital and volunteers from Haitian and Dominican Red Cross are providing first aid care
•       The Red Cross distributed 120,000 litres of water to approximately 24,000 people on 16 January and 100,000 litres were distributed on 17 January. Small distributions to hospitals have also taken place. Total distributions to date: 234,350 litres.
•       The Dominican Red Cross are setting up a field hospital near Jimani’s fortress and the a number of Red Cross emergency response teams have arrived in Haiti.
International Committee of the Red Cross
•       70 ICRC staff are working in Haiti
•       Two ICRC rapid deployment teams will be in Haiti, one is due to arrive today, one arrived last week
•       ICRC has built latrines for 1,000 people and supplied medical kits for 2,000 patients to two hospitals
•       Seven truckloads of ICRC medical supplies arrived in Port-au-Prince on 17 January

More than 21,600 people have registered with the ICRC’s restoring family links website

To donate: Got to http://www.redcross.org.uk/index.asp?id=39992 or http://www.msf.org.uk/donateredirect.html?

Photograph: Gregory Bull/AP