Eight days after the disaster, search operations continue through the rubble, but the chance of finding survivors decreases by the hour. About 600,000 people have been directly affected by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake and are in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to Haitian authorities.
Bringing food and water to those affected is a logistical challenge in the face of attacks on road convoys by criminals. “We have a security problem that is increasingly evident,” Jerry Chandler, Haiti’s director of Civil Protection, told AFP.
Since the beginning of June, it is impossible to safely travel the two-kilometer stretch of the national highway that runs through the Martissant area, a poor neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, and a battlefield for gangs.
With destruction and damage particularly severe in remote rural areas, Haitian authorities are focusing on delivering humanitarian aid by air, via a UN helicopter and eight planes provided by the US military.
With information from AFP and Reuters.