Haiti: Civil Protection reviews its aid delivery strategy

Visit of Haitian leaders and officials of the US army to Petit-Trou-de-Nippes, the epicenter of the earthquake that struck Haiti, August 21, 2021. AFP - MARLEAH CABANO

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3 min

A week after the earthquake that devastated southwestern Haiti, the toll has grown even worse: at least 2,207 people have been killed and more than 340 are still missing.

Bringing food and water to tens of thousands of affected families is a logistical challenge and to speed up distributions, Haitian civil protection is turning to the delivery of aid by helicopters. 

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With our correspondent in Port-au-Prince,

Amélie Baron

The town centers of the communes of the South-West were largely destroyed by the earthquake.

But it is especially in rural areas, very isolated, that the humanitarian emergency is most glaring. 

"

We will use the logistics of some of our partners,

explains Jerry Chandler, director of civil protection,

to be able to helicopter aid directly to rural areas so as to reach as many people as possible with the basic measures, which are, I remind you, food and water, but above all, more importantly, protection against bad weather.

So they need tarpaulins, they need tents.

 "

The United Nations helicopter and the 8 others made available by the American army will increase the number of rotations.

A more complicated logistics but which avoids the looting of convoys between the provincial towns.

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See also: Haiti: a week after the earthquake, rural areas still left to their own devices

Avoid the looting of convoys

The problem is precisely on the roads of certain regions which lead us to the most affected administrative centers,”

specifies Jerry Chandler.

So we were able to arrange to ensure that the distribution was made for these people so that the pretext was not the frustration which justifies the looting of convoys.

But right now, as we are faced with a problem of basic banditry

.

"

The Haitian police have announced a reinforcement of their teams in the South to prevent aid, so vital to the victims, from being stolen.  

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To read also: In the News: in Haiti, avoid the mistakes of 2010

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