Mirebalais

Mirebalais (Creole: Mibalè ) is a city in the east of Haiti, in the department Centre. Mirebalais is the chief town of a district of the same name ( county).

The Commune of Mirebalais (ie the actual city and the surrounding hamlets) has about 89,000 inhabitants (as of 2009). Since then, the population has grown significantly since many Haitians left homeless by the earthquake on 12 January 2010 has become in the not affected by the disaster Mirebalais found refuge.

Local situation

Mirebalais is located 42 km northeast of the capital Port-au -Prince and 39 km west of the border with the Dominican Republic, on the left bank of the Artibonite, the largest river of Haiti. Located at the crossroads of the paved national roads 3 (of Port-au- Prince to Hinche ) and 11 ( through the Artibonite Valley to the coast ), Mirebalais is - for Haitian conditions - easy to reach.

15 km upriver is the Péligre Dam with the main power plant of the country.

History

In 1706, nine years after Spain had recognized the French claim to the west of the island of Hispaniola in the peace of Ryswick, the French could create their slaves a cart led by Dondon for Cul -de- Sac Plain, in what is now Port-au -Prince is located. At the ford of this route through the Artibonite Mirebalais was the place. Due to its location, the town became a market town. On the plantations in Mirebalais was especially cotton, besides also grown coffee. Mirebalais ' importance as a local center was recognized and strengthened at the same time when, after the Concordat of 1860 one of the first twelve parishes of Haiti was built in 1864 in Mirebalais.

The end of 2010 came Mirebalais in the headlines when stationed in an army camp near Mirebalais Nepalese UN peacekeepers of the Mission des Nations Unies pour la stabilization en Haïti (MINUSTAH ) einschleppten cholera and triggered a devastating epidemic.

After the university hospital was destroyed in Port -au -Prince during the earthquake in 2010, was 2011/2012 built as a replacement in Mirebalais, a teaching hospital, one of the largest hospitals in Haiti outside the capital.

Sons and daughters of the town

• Benoît Batraville, born 1877 in Mirebalais, teachers, and resistance fighter against the occupation of Haiti by the United States, 1920 was executed by Marines.