Deluge of Haiti aid, but officials say more needed

Donors ranging from the world’s richest countries to individuals sending text messages have contributed massive aid for quake-stricken Haiti, but officials said Friday much more was needed.

The UN said it planned an appeal for hundreds of millions of dollars, with the deeply poor country desperate for food and medical supplies and its shattered infrastructure making distribution of assistance difficult.

Twenty countries, organisations and companies have already pledged 268.5 million dollars (186.3 million euros) in aid for victims of the 7.0 magnitude quake, according to UN data.

On Friday, the United Nations said it would launch an appeal for 562 million dollars from donors following the quake that is thought to have killed an estimated 50,000 people.

There were estimates that some three million people a third of the population - had been affected, and UN officials on the ground pleaded for more medical and food aid for survivors.

“We really need to focus on the living, and what we can do for them,” Nicholas Reader, spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told AFP at the Port-au-Prince airport.

As part of the UN appeal the World Food Programme called for 279 million dollars to feed two million people and provide logistical support for a 6-month emergency operation in Haiti.

“In the initial phase of the operation, WFP will provide one-week rations of ready-to-eat food to up to 2 million people who no longer have access to kitchens or cooking facilities.”

Major world powers and large emerging countries - including the United States, Britain, Brazil and China - all contributed substantially to the aid effort.

US troops began pouring into the country Friday to start handling tons of aid, and the nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson arrived with 19 helicopters, a water-purification plant and carrying tons of medicines.

US forces were to deploy a field hospital and three dozen medics by Sunday, a US Air Force official said.

The UN has around 12,000 personnel in Haiti, including blue berets and civilian representatives, and is considering ordering 5,000 staff, who are not in Port-au-Prince, to the capital.Brazil was in command of the UN peacekeeping force deployed to Haiti before the quake, and is using its 1,260 troops for disaster relief efforts.

It lost 17 of its citizens in the disaster.The Latin American country has also offered to build a cemetery in Haiti for the thousands killed, promising it will respect the Voodoo beliefs of part of the Caribbean country’s population, officials said.

Haiti’s President Rene Preval praised the massive international relief effort but warned that the aid operation remains uncoordinated.

Preval said 74 planes from countries including the United States, France and Venezuela, had arrived at Port-au-Prince’s overwhelmed airport in a single day.

China is to send 30 million yuan (4.4 million dollars) in aid to Haiti, the government announced.

A plane carrying emergency supplies, including food, medicine and water purification equipment, was due to leave Saturday.

-AFP