The World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday slammed the theft of humanitarian aid in Haiti, where some 500,000 people were made homeless by four hurricanes in August and last month.
“This assistance is donated by the international community to help people who really need it, and it is intolerable that a gift destined to help very poor and hungry people is stolen or trafficked,” the WFP said in a statement.
The WFP was reacting to news that two city officials in northern Gonaives had been arrested and questioned on Monday in connection with a warehouse full of stolen food discovered by police.
“While the case of the food stolen in Gonaives did not concern WFP, WFP is calling for concerted action to prevent such theft and to prosecute the perpetrators of such actions,” it said.
“As a result of the combination of hurricanes and floods and soaring food prices, almost a third of the population is in need of food assistance,” WFP said.
“WFP is providing regular food rations to more than half a million storm victims in Haiti, 266,000 of them in Gonaives,” it said.
In another incident related to the relief effort, a radio station dedicated to the hurricane victims reported that a gunman broke into its studios and threatened to kill everybody inside. Radio announcer Jean-Pierre Blaise said programming was shut down for 48 hours after the incident.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Fund for Agricultural Development said on Monday in Rome that they had put together a US$10.2 million “agricultural rescue package” to improve food security for Haitians.
Four big storms — Tropical Storm Fay and hurricanes Gustav, Hanna and Ike — pounded impoverished Haiti in August and last month, killing a total 793 people and leaving more than 300 others missing.
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
RSS