US pledges more aid to earthquake victims in Haiti

The United States pledged another $32 million in aid to the victims of Haiti's 7.2-magnitude earthquake Thursday, as the country's interim prime minister defended his government's response.

U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power said the U.S. government had learned from the 2010 Haiti earthquake and said USAID was coordinating closely with the government of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

"What we really want to see happening is that the purchases whether of rebuilding supplies or of food for those purchases to bee done locally," Power said, pointing out the importance of local expertise and local leadership to reach communities in need.

The Aug. 14 earthquake killed more than 2,200 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless on Haiti's southwestern peninsula.

Power and Henry said providing emergency shelter was the top priority nearly two weeks after the temblor.

Speaking together at the capital's international airport as U.S. military aircraft ferried people and supplies into the country, Henry said his government was coordinating the relief response despite the turmoil created by the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse July 7.

"The Haitian government is facing a lot of challenges," Henry said. "We have political difficulties, we have economic difficulties, but despite all these issues, we are addressing the challenges of the earthquake."

He rejected the assertion that the government was in chaos.

Far more visible since the earthquake have been nongovernmental organizations and U.S. government agencies in the earthquake zone.

For days the relief effort was hampered by the inability to safely move relief supplies and quake victims through a gang-controlled area south of the capital.

IMAGE: AP