Further Reading

Sunday 17 January 2010

Hunger And Misery Amid Haiti Aid Logjam

Four days after the 7.0 magnitude quake killed up to 200,000 people, international rescue teams were continuing to find victims alive under the rubble in capital Port-au-Prince. Hundreds of thousands of hungry Haitians desperately need help, but logistical logjams kept major relief from reaching them. Many victims have been sheltering in makeshift camps on streets strewn with debris and decomposing bodies. Others streamed out of the capital on foot to find food and shelter in the countryside - and flee aftershocks and violence. But, on the streets of Port-au-Prince, where scarce police patrols fired shots and tear gas to try to disperse looters, the distribution of aid appeared random, chaotic and minimal. Heavily armed gang members, who once ran Haiti's largest slum - Cite Soleil - like warlords, also returned with a vengeance after the quake damaged a jail and allowed 3,000 inmates to break out. There were jostling scrums for food and water too, as US military helicopters swooped down to throw out boxes of water bottles and rations. (Sky News)