EXTRA: Haiti police fire over heads in food turmoil

Tue, 26 Jan 2010

Port-au-Prince - Haitian police Tuesday fired shots into the air as a riot erupted around a food convoy moving through earthquake destruction in the outlying district of Petionville. Hundreds of people from an improvised refugee camp at Place Saint Pierre ran after the three-truck convoy as it moved past. Police fired over their heads, but it did not stop the men, women and children from grabbing bags of flour and other foods from the truck, observed by a German Press Agency reporter.

There were no injuries.

The impromptu camps lack basic food, water and services. The World Food Programme estimates it will have to feed 2 million people for at least the next 12 months.

It's difficult getting food and water through to earthquake survivors, given the condition of rubble-strewn roads and lack of security.

Many Haitians have not eaten a decent meal or even a bite of daily bread since the January 12 disaster struck. An estimated 150,000 people have died and the toll continued to rise.

There are more than 300 impromptu camps like the one at Place Saint Pierre in Port-Au-Prince. About 500,000 people live in the camps, which range from 50 people to 20,000 people, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says.

Aid organizations are trying to put their stamp on organization. The IOM expects to begin to build temporary camps with services for 10,000 people each in the Haitian capital and outlying areas, the spokeswoman for the organization, Niurka Pineiro, told dpa.

"We are looking for solutions day by day," she said.

She anticipated the first two camps to be built in Croix des Bouquets, about 13 kilometers to the north-west of Port-au-Prince, and in the Route of Tabarre, near the embassy of the United States.

The IOM is charting a program to later replace the tented camps with homes that will be built by the hands of the earthquake refugees, for which they will be paid in cash by IOM and other organizations.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/305983,extra-haiti-police-fire-over-heads-in-food-turmoil.html.