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More UN peacekeepers arrive in Haiti

More UN peacekeepers arrive in Haiti

More than 100 Jordanian police officers have arrived in Haiti to join the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Caribbean country.

The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) said 110 members of a Jordanian formed police unit arrived yesterday in the capital, Port-au-Prince, to join the peacekeeping operation. At full strength, the operation will have more than 8,300 troops and police.

Meanwhile, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG), Juan Gabriel Valdés, toured the newly cleared and secured port and customs authority areas yesterday to observe the resumed economic activity.

"Economic security is very important to Haiti. We cannot permit ourselves to put in danger the progress already achieved in Haiti. Any threat to economic security is also a threat to the international community," he said.

He also looked at the UN World Food Programme's (WFP) distribution of food that previously had been blocked by dissident gangs in the port area.

WFP said last week, "Hundreds of containers with food and other humanitarian aid have been blocked for weeks, because workers have not dared to return to work."

To make up for the shortfall, the agency had bought 440 tons of fortified maize meal in the Dominican Republic for Port-au-Prince and 230 tons of fortified biscuits in Cuba for victims in Gonaïves of the floods and landslides caused by Tropical Storm Jeanne.