Doctors Without Borders: Airport Violence Over Fuel In Haiti

by Yuliya Talmazan | January 18, 2010 at 03:20 pm

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Doctors Without Borders reports security concerns in quake-hit Haiti are escalating. The chief emergency officer of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Benoit Leduc said during today's teleconference that there have been localized incidents over food and aid distribution that involved violence, including today's violent incident at the Port-au-Prince airport. Leduc said there are sporadic reports of either shootouts or incidents.

De Fillipe said the situation is “absolutely dramatic.” He said MSF received people with gunshot wounds. A curfew was imposed in Port-au-Prince on Sunday to reduce the incidents of violence at nighttime.

MSF medical coordinator Loris De Filippi said there was a “difficult situation” at the Port-au-Prince airport as fuel was being distributed. The Haiti capital is in sever shortage of fuel.

“Some people shot in the air, at the airport, and brought this sort of incredible movement of people,” said De Filippi.

Leduc said he foresees the fuel shortage to become an issue of the supply does not come in the coming days.