The threat of gang violence in a desperately poor Haiti neighborhood is delaying aid distribution, a top US military officer coordinating earthquake relief warned on Monday.
Gangs in the slums of Cite Soleil are “using intimidation, they’re trying to use force, to undercut efforts to provide support,” Army Colonel Gregory Kane, US operations officer for the Joint Task Force Haiti, told reporters outside the US embassy.
“The gangs have a monetary interest in controlling that area,” he said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
US troops in Haiti are providing support to non-governmental organizations and UN missions such as the World Food Programme (WFP) distributing food aid to Haitians in the wake of the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.
An estimated 1 million people were left homeless and mostly reliant on foreign food aid.
The aid groups “are ready to go in, we’re ready to go in and we are just working with the local leaders to make sure the conditions are set so we don’t endanger both the Haitian population that’s coming through the distribution point as well as people distributing,” Kane said.
He estimated WFP distribution points would not be re-open there until today or tomorrow.
Aid distribution had been underway in the neighborhood since the earthquake, but has curtailed in recent days because of reports of rising gang activities.
“We’re not concerned about our security,” Kane said.
“What we’re most concerned about is the citizens of Cite Soleil getting to the distribution point without being accosted and once they get their rations, getting back to their homes safely without being extorted.
“The gangs won’t take on the police or MINUSTAH [the UN mission in Haiti] — they certainly won’t take on the US forces. But they will, where possible, try to intimidate or take on those who are unarmed,” he said.
Meanwhile, former US president Bill Clinton, currently the UN special envoy to Haiti, will be named international coordinator for relief efforts in the earthquake-devastated country, UN officials said on Monday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been formally announced, UN diplomats and officials said Clinton was the most obvious choice to coordinate aid and reconstruction in the impoverished Caribbean nation.
“The official announcement should come sometime this week,” a UN official said.
Another official said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would formally appoint Clinton, who would “represent the UN at the strategic level” and coordinate aid, financial assistance and reconstruction.
Several Security Council diplomats said Clinton had strong backing from UN member states.
They said he was the right person for the job because he can combine his UN authority with his experience and connections in the US government.
The former president, whose wife is US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has been actively involved in the Haiti earthquake relief effort from the beginning and has already visited the country to witness the destruction for himself.
Clinton told a meeting of global leaders in Davos, Switzerland, last week that there were “serious unmet food and water needs” in Haiti and appealed for short and long-term funds to help the country.
Nearly three weeks after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake killed up to 200,000 Haitians and made up to 1 million homeless, a huge US-led international relief operation has been struggling to help injured and hungry survivors.
The UN, which has more than 12,600 troops and police in Haiti, has been overseeing the emergency relief effort in coordination with the US military, which has mobilized more than 10,000 personnel to help the country.
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