US troops deployed to Haiti during a bloody revolt to oust former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide will begin leaving in the midst of another crisis as the nation tries to recover from deadly floods.
Rushing help to people in submerged villages after floods killed more than 1,400 in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the troops control the few helicopters that can reach inaccessible areas. In the past few days, they have airlifted more than 45,000kg of food and drinking water and evacuated the injured from submerged towns like Mapou.
For some of the 1,900 US troops -- 1,500 of them Marines -- the end to their Haiti mission is a bittersweet moment.
PHOTO: EPA
"On the one hand, we'll leave with a sense of accomplishment," said Marine Lieutenant-Colonel Dave Lapan, spokesman for the US-led multinational task force sent to secure and stabilize the nation. "On the other hand, there's so much this place needs."
A symbolic handover is set for today, but only a fraction of the planned 8,000 or so UN troops and police have arrived, and none have brought helicopters needed to help flood victims.
Most of the US troops will stay on for a while to help with the transition.
Afterward, many will head back to Iraq. Fewer than a dozen US troops will participate in the UN force.
Floods and mudslides brought on by three days of heavy rain wiped out entire villages in Haiti's southeast around the farming community of Mapou, a week before hurricane season.
Desperate survivors from 14 surrounding villages clamored for food and water on Sunday, as the military helicopters swooped down every hour or so with more aid and some 1,000 Haitians stood waiting in the heat, shouting and hitting their bellies.
Soldiers did regular patrols to keep people from stealing food.
"People have been hiding in corn fields and jumping each other at night to get rice and other food," said US Marine Corporal Scott Rossman.
Survivor Philis Milfort, 87, lost eight relatives.
"Now I have no house, no animals, and no family -- and now the people who they appointed to distribute the food are only giving it to their friends," Milfort complained, hobbling on crutches because he lost a leg three years ago to disease.
UN and aid workers complained Sunday some of the food wasn't reaching people.
"Right now there is no equity" said Bernard Gianoli, a UN disaster assessment official.
"The food distribution has to be improved," he said.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
SPIRITUAL COUPLE: Martha Louise has said she can talk with angels, while her husband, Durek Verrett, claims that he communicates with a broad range of spirits Social media influencers, reality stars and TV personalities were among the guests as the Norwegian king’s eldest child, Princess Martha Louise, married a self-professed US shaman on Saturday in a wedding ceremony following three days of festivities. The 52-year-old Martha Louise and Durek Verrett, who claims to be a sixth-generation shaman from California, tied the knot in the picturesque small town of Geiranger, one of Norway’s major tourist attractions located on a fjord with stunning views. Following festivities that started on Thursday, the actual wedding ceremony took place in a large white tent set up on a lush lawn. Guests
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
RSS