Security concerns halt some Haiti aid distribution

GENEVA - Distribution of food and shelter items in parts of Haiti had to be halted in certain locations owing to safety fears, an aid organisation said Friday.

“The distribution at Place Boyer had to be stopped due to overcrowding and security concerns,” the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said, referring to the location of the prime minister’s compound in the capital Port au Prince.

The IOM was handing out tents and similar items while doing joint distribution Thursday afternoon with the World Food Programme, which was giving people in need high energy biscuits and other basic supplies.

Aid workers continued to express concerns that violence in Haiti could erupt, as people were angry and frustrated over their plight following the devastating quake and slow aid response owing to the difficulties in getting help into and around the poor country.

The UN said its food warehouses were looted.

“When people have not eaten or drunk anything in 50 hours … and if they see a truck or a supermarket that collapsed, they will rush to get something to eat,” one UN official said.

Some officials said they were taking security precautions and avoiding work in certain places after dark, anyway made difficult by the lack of electricity and poor capacity to light up collapsed buildings where survivors might be buried.

Adding to the problems, a prison housing 4,000 inmates, including some violent criminals, was damaged in the 7.0 magnitude quake that struck Tuesday afternoon, and nearly all the prisoners escaped.

The Haitian Red Cross was working on an estimate of some 50,000 dead, but aid workers stressed it was only a preliminary number.