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Haiti food convoy attacked; UN warns of volatility

03 February 2010 03:43 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Ziya Agazade â€“ APA. A generous world has flooded Haiti with donations, but anger and desperation are mounting as the aid stacks up inside this broken country, APA reports citing â€œAssociated Pressâ€.

Bottlenecks at key transportation points and scattered violence, including an armed group’s attack on a food convoy, have slowed the distribution of food and medicine from the port, airport and a warehouse in the Cite-Soleil slum. U.S. air traffic controllers have lined up 2,550 incoming flights through March 1, but some 25 flights a day aren’t taking their slots. Communication breakdowns between Haitians and their foreign counterparts are also endemic.

"Aid is bottlenecking at the Port-au-Prince airport. It’s not getting into the field," said Mike O’Keefe, who runs Bayan Air Service in Fort Lauderdale.
Foreign aid workers and Haitians are fed up with waiting for help. One Haitian father paid a group of men more than $200 on Tuesday to retrieve his daughter’s body from his collapsed house, rather than wait for demolition crews.

The attack on the convoy as it carried supplies from an airport in the southern town of Jeremie underscored what the United Nations calls a "potentially volatile" security situation.

Mobs have also stolen food and looted goods from their neighbors in the camps, prompting many to band together or stay awake at night to prevent raids.

Small groups of state employees and lawyers held protests across the city Tuesday, denouncing President Rene Preval’s leadership. Prime Minister Max Bellerive defended the government’s performance before a quorum of 20 Haitian senators.