Qatar yesterday sent a strategic transport aircraft (C-17) to Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, loaded with 50tonnes of urgent relief materials to those affected in the quake-hit country.
In a statement to Qatar News Agency, the chairman of the Qatari rescue team Captain Mubarak Sherida al-Kaabi said: “The emergency assistance to the friendly Haitian people came under the directives of the High Command in Qatar as part of its continuous efforts to provide shelter, clothing, food and medicine to the needy and those affected by natural disasters in friendly countries.”
Captain al-Kaabi said the rescue team included 26 members from the Qatari armed forces, the internal security force (Lekhwiya), police force and the Hamad Medical Corporation. The team will set up a field hospital and provide assistance in Port-au-Prince and other affected areas in Haiti.
The Qatari search-and-rescue team has conducted similar relief efforts in Indonesia and Pakistan, al-Kaabi noted.
Qatar’s relief initiative comes under the directives of HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and HH the Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
It is being conducted under the supervision of HE the Chief of Staff of the Qatari Armed Forces Major General Hamad bin Ali al-Attiyah.
Meanwhile, as troops and planeloads of food and medicine streamed into Haiti, President Barack Obama pledged $ 100mn for relief aid yesterday and enlisted the help of two former US presidents, promising Haitians: “You will not be forsaken.”
Obama told his top aides that responding to the earthquake aftermath should be their top priority.
Former president Bill Clinton, who is already a UN special envoy for Haiti, and former president George W Bush agreed to a request from Obama to help the quake relief effort. Obama talked by telephone with Bush on Wednesday night about helping out.
“Both of them have agreed to take part in this,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, promising more details in the next few days.
“To the people of Haiti, we say clearly and with conviction, you will not be forsaken. You will not be forgotten. In this, your hour of greatest need, America stands with you. The world stands with you,” Obama said.
The US is sending some elements of its armed forces to the impoverished nation. Several Coast Guard cutters are already there providing basic services like water and technical support for a massive logistical operation.
Obama said elements of the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division were being sent. A Marine expeditionary unit was also being deployed, as well as the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and a US Navy hospital ship, the Comfort.
A late night report quoting US aviation authorities said Haiti has warned that its airport is full and has asked the US and other countries not to authorise any more flights to Port-au-Prince for now.
The United Nations meanwhile said yesterday at least 36 of its personnel were killed in the earthquake, the worst loss of life the world body has ever suffered in a single incident. A 35-year-old Estonian, Tarmo Joveer, was freed from the rubble of the UN’s five-storey headquarters early yesterday, and told journalists he was fine.
The International Monetary Fund’s head Dominique Strauss-Kahn said it will quickly provide $ 100mn in aid to Haiti. Strauss-Kahn said the $ 100mn would come from an increase in an existing loan to Haiti.
In Paris, President Nicolas Sarkozy said France was sending two navy ships carrying medical equipment. He made the announcement in a press conference in which he called for an international conference on rebuilding Haiti and said he himself would travel there to support aid efforts some time in the coming weeks.
The Canadian government announced it is ready to match its citizens’ donations for quake-stricken Haiti up to a combined total of 100mn Canadian dollars.
Britain, meanwhile, said it would donate more than £6mn ($ 9.75mn) to Haiti, as a rescue team it sent touched down to help the hunt for survivors.
A team of 75 British rescue specialists with lifting gear and officials hasnow arrived in Port-au-Prince and will get to work immediately, Brown said.
As international aid pledges poured in the Haitian Red Cross said it believed 45,000 to 50,000 people had died and 3mn more were hurt or left homeless by the 7.0 magnitude quake.
“Money is worth nothing right now, water is the currency,” one foreign aid-worker said.
Looters swarmed a broken supermarket in the Delmas area of Port-au-Prince, peacefully carrying out electronics and bags of rice. Others siphoned gasoline from a wrecked tanker.
“All the policemen are busy rescuing and burying their own families,” said tile factory owner Manuel Deheusch. “They don’t have the time to patrol the streets.”
Aid distribution was hampered because roads were still blocked by rubble and normal communications were cut off.