Colombia quake kills 132, leaves 238 missing in Cali
Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city, has recorded 132 deaths, 238 missing and more than 2,500 injured after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake on 10 August, according to OCHA figures compiled by 12 August.
Source: United Nations News · August 16, 2026 at 5:44 PM · AI-assisted report
Single-sourceKUALA LUMPUR, 14 AUGUST 2026 —
Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city, has recorded 132 deaths, 238 missing and more than 2,500 injured after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake on 10 August, according to OCHA figures compiled by 12 August.
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Residents and volunteers have turned the city centre into a 24-hour relief hub where food, water and tools are handed out and rubble is cleared by hand. Víctor Manuel Rodríguez, who lives on the sixth floor of an apartment block in southern Cali, said the tremor shattered windows and made nearby buildings collapse.
He ran down six flights with his dog, waited hours for structural checks, then returned to his unit to collect torches, gloves and whistles before heading back outside to Capri, a district where several buildings came down. “It was incredibly intense,” he said.
“It was really hard for all of us to feel that this could be our last day.” He has since spent two days at rescue sites, listening for signs of life under concrete and helping carry supplies.
Jeimmy Celemín, who lives in another part of Cali, said neighbours with no prior link began pooling money to buy water and food, then turned up at collection points with helmets, gloves and shovels. “People in Cali responded from the very first moment,” she said.
“As soon as we saw collapsed buildings and realised the rescue teams would not cope alone, people took to the streets.” Temperatures near 35°C added urgency, making water deliveries to firefighters and volunteers almost as vital as the equipment itself. “They have been working under that brutal sun,” she said. “We are looking out for one another. I feel like we are one, like we are a family.”
The city’s Petronio Álvarez Pacific Music Festival, scheduled to run through August, was paused after the quake. The grounds and pavilions, normally used for concerts and food stalls, are now sorting donations for displaced families. The festival’s Pacific ties also mean the hardest-hit regions lie within the same cultural corridor. Collection points in Cali later asked donors to redirect goods to Buenaventura, Pereira and Manizales, where damage is heavier and roads are worse.
José Daniel Hernández, who joined debris removal on the first day, said he spent the next morning scouring the city for places where help was still needed. Once rescue teams had enough hands, he switched to sourcing batteries, flashlights and cutting tools. “I’d rather come here and help however I can than sit around waiting,” he said.
At one site, Hernández met a stranger whose name he still does not know; both had spent the night carrying materials and returned the following morning. “Yesterday we were carrying things together, and here we are again today,” he said. “We don’t even know each other’s names.”
The UN has deployed assessment teams and relief supplies to Cali and surrounding Valle del Cauca, where about 36,000 people have been affected. For Malaysian businesses with operations in Latin America, the disaster highlights supply-chain risks in seismically active zones and the need for rapid humanitarian access protocols.