Haiti earthquake: The moment stick-wielding gang stormed food depot

By David Williams

Mob rule: Hatians armed with sticks and machetes scuffle to enter a food distribution centre in Port-au-Prince


Wielding sticks and clubs, starving Haitians stormed a food distribution centre yesterday as anger over the failure to deliver aid boiled over.

Dozens of desperate survivors had been waiting ten days for food to reach their tented camp in Port-au-Prince.

Finally they snapped, and scrambled over 8ft walls to help themselves from a United Nations warehouse filled with rice, cooking oil, dried beans, salt and protein biscuits.

Volunteers of a U.S. charity who had planned to hand out the aid could only look on helplessly as 50 tons of food disappeared.

Aid is pouring into Haiti, but many people in the 500 makeshift camps around the capital are furious that they have still received no food or water.

Thousands of U.S. and UN troops have been deployed to provide security but a police chief warned yesterday that gangs had begun robbing and looting and that women were being raped.

The exodus from the capital continued yesterday as Haiti's government promised to help nearly 500,000 people move into safe, clean tent cities.


Out of control: Food supplies are still scarce on Haiti despite a massive relief effort involving countries from around the world


Overseas engineers have started clearing land on the fringes of the city for tents to house a further 400,000. U.S. troops are giving out 50,000 solar-powered and wind-up radios to help Haitians receive news and public service announcements. The units also have lights and mobile phone chargers to ease the crisis in communications

Doctors were fighting to save a 69-year-old woman pulled barely alive from the ruins of her home yesterday. But international rescue teams have begun heading home with the chances of finding survivors now very slim. Anthony Thomas of Rapid UK said: 'We've done all we can. It's time for the relief teams to take over.' British teams found four of the 132 people who were rescued from under rubble.

A leading French politician hascriticised the EU's new foreign affairs chief, Labour peeress Bariness Ashton, for not visiting Haiti.


Desperate: Kiki and Sabrina were rescued from their crumpled home but are now living in a tent on wasteland in Port-au-Prince


Mixed emotions: Kiki and Sabrina with their father Odinel


Former foreign minister Michel Barnier, who is set to become EU commissioner in charge of the internal market, warned that he would be paying close attention to how she performs, although he later insisted reports of his off-the-record briefing were misleading.

Lady Ashton has said she stayed away on UN advice, to avoid ' getting in the way' of the aid effort.

Unicef spokesman in Haiti Tamar Hahn said that despite the looting and fighting, he had witnessed 'enormous resilience' among the people.

The charity is scouring the country for orphans and warned that illegal adoption is a real concern in the chaos following the quake.


Epic destruction: The town of Leogane, 40 miles outside the capital Port-au-Prince, was levelled to the ground


Bottleneck: The US military say 1,400 international relief flights are still trying to land on the single runway at Haiti airport


source: dailymail