Haiti frustrated by slow moving aid
January 18, 2010
Five days after an earthquake all but destroyed Port-au-Prince on the island of Haiti frustrations over the amount of aid making it onto the ground are beginning to escalate. Even though U.N. spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs claims that all of the different agencies are pulling together there are still questions over who exactly is coordinating efforts to get relief supplies from the airport and to the people camped out on the streets of the capital who need it most. Security on the streets is also now becoming a top priority. Fear for rescue worker’s safety as they take water and food out of the airport may be one of the factors contributing the apparent slowness of operations. Two looters were shot dead by police at the weekend and some looters are reported to have been lynched by angry Haitian’s fully prepared to take the law into their own hands.
A handful of people are still being found alive beneath the rubble but no one now actually expects to find more survivors. The death toll is estimated to be up to 200,000 people but nobody will ever know the exact final figure. Spokesman for the International Red Cross, Paul Conneally said that the effort by The Red Cross/Red Crescent was already the biggest in any single country in the organisation’s history. He said that initial estimations were that aid would be needed for around three million people but continued by saying this figure was likely to be revised upwards.
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