Governments and citizens across the world recoiled on Friday with disgust, outrage and sadness at reports that President Trump had described Haiti and unspecified African nations as “shithole countries” during a meeting with members of Congress on Thursday about immigration, asking why the American government would want to admit their citizens as immigrants.

The Haitian government called the remarks racist. The president of Senegal tweeted that he was shocked. South Africa’s governing party said the comments were “extremely offensive.” The African Union said it was “frankly alarmed.”

In Haiti, particularly, the words were greeted with pain, as the country marked the eighth anniversary of the deadly 2010 earthquake — known as the worst natural disaster of modern history, killing between 230,000 and 316,000 people and leaving 1.5 million homeless.

President Jovenel Moïse attended a solemn ceremony at Titanyen, the monument to the country’s earthquake victims, where thousands were buried anonymously in giant pits.