Port-au-Prince: The struggling aid effort
in Haiti was hit by another setback as the UN halted
deliveries to some 10,000 quake survivors after discovering
that fake coupons were in operation.
An agitated crowd of around 100 people continued to
wait well into the afternoon at the drop-off site close to the
town hall in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville as
others clamoured to get tickets valid for today.
"We need food!" one old lady shouted at a guard
charged with manning the steel bars blocking the entrance to
the town hall offices.
Others simply pointed to their mouths and stomachs.
UN World Food Programme spokesman David Orr said the
suspension would affect around 10,000 survivors of the massive
January 12 earthquake that killed over 212,000 people and left
an estimated one million people homeless.
The UN agency has set up 16 food distribution points
across the city, handing out 25-kilogramme sacks of rice
designed to feed a family for two weeks.
Orr said World Food Programme partners hoped to
restart the distributions at the affected site today.
Meanwhile, Laura Silsby, the leader of a group of 10
American missionaries arrested at the Dominican border for
trying to smuggle out a busload of children appeared in court
to answer kidnapping charges.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, February 09, 2010, 09:33