Haiti's rising crime preventing humanitarian aid distribution, UN says

The rising crime rate in Haiti is restricting humanitarian aid distribution in the troubled Caribbean country, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today.

Kidnapping has increased, while cars are stopped and the people inside them robbed, OCHA spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs told a news briefing in Geneva.

The police force was still understaffed and had few weapons, while some 25,000 people in the country were estimated to own small arms and other weapons, she said.

The supply of water and electricity were also serious problems, Ms. Byrs said.

The insurgency in February and March had caused enormous damage to the water supply sector, including sabotage of installations, looting of premises and theft of spare parts and vehicles. As a result, the water supply had fallen to 75 per cent of what it was before, but the humanitarian agencies were working to improve this, she said.