Millions in Swedish aid headed to quake-hit Haiti

Sweden plans to donate 180 million kronor ($25.6 million) in financial aid to help Haiti recover from last week’s devastating earthquake, the foreign ministry said on Monday.

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"Sweden's support for the emergency situation in Haiti now amounts to 180 million kronor. In addition, Sweden will disburse its entire annual contribution of 425 million kronor to the UN Central Emergency Response fund (CERF)," the ministry said in a statement.

The UN said on Friday that it was launching an appeal for $562 million from donors following Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude quake which devastated the poverty-stricken Caribbean nation of nine million and was the strongest in more than a century.

"Approximately 100 million of the 180 million kronor is new money that is up front. The rest of the sum is money that we had made available in the UN system before the crisis," a spokesman for International Development Cooperation minister Gunilla Carlsson, Peter Larsson, told AFP.

At least 70,000 bodies have been buried in mass graves and officials fear the final death toll could top 200,000, while 250,000 people were injured and up to 1.5 million were left homeless.