Annan calls for aid to Haiti after hundreds killed by Tropical Storm Jeanne

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called for international support for Haiti in the wake of Tropical Storm Jeanne, which has killed at least 690 people and left a devastating trail of floods and mudslides across the north of the destitute Caribbean country.

Mr. Annan "is deeply saddened by the heavy loss of life and destruction" caused by Tropical Storm Jeanne, his spokesman said in a statement which noted that the residents of the city of Gonaïves - Haiti's third largest - have particularly suffered in the subsequent floods.

Much of Haiti's official death toll of 691 comes from Gonaïves, which remains without electricity or functioning landline telephones and is still at high risk of looting, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Haitian authorities say another 1,050 people are missing and OCHA reports that the death toll could go even higher because some families in Gonaïves are burying their dead without formally reporting them. Many residents are living in 20 temporary shelters around the city, but conditions there are poor.

The UN is accelerating its efforts to provide food, clean water, shelter and health care to the estimated 175,000 people affected by Tropical Storm Jeanne, which struck Haiti and the neighbouring Dominican Republic at the weekend.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has sent its first convoy of trucks, carrying rice, vegetable oil and dry rations, to the city, which has about 100,000 residents. A second convoy is expected to leave the capital Port-au-Prince later today.

WFP's Haiti Country Director Guy Gavreau described the situation in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation as dire. "The water washed away entire homes and belongings. Many people don't even have the means to cook. To start with, we are supplying rations ready to eat until people get access to cooking facilities. We are also providing 5,000 loaves of fresh bread, the first time we have ever done this in Haiti."

Gonaïves is not the only city to have suffered. On the north coast, at least 56 people have died in Port de Paix, where about a third of the city remains under water. Floods and mudslides have also made it impossible to reach some parts of the department of L'Artibonite.

Today the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is sending 30 social workers to Haiti to help children traumatized by what they have experienced. The agency has also dispatched maternal health kits.

The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), the UN World Health Organization (WHO) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are also stepping up their efforts to provide and distribute relief, especially clean drinking water.

A seven-member UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination team is also arriving in Haiti today and tomorrow to help local authorities organize their response.

Haiti, which has been hit by heavy floods several times so far this year, is particularly vulnerable because years of deforestation have stripped the land of much of its topsoil.