Haitians protest mayor’s corruption, hoarding of aid

Survivors of Haiti’s devastating earthquake have hit the streets in the country’s wrecked capital in protest against the mayor’s hoarding of aid provided by relief groups.

Hundreds of protesters thronged in a suburb of Port-au-Prince on Sunday as thousands of Haitians remain hungry and homeless one month after the earthquake registering a magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale struck the impoverished Caribbean state.

Aid agencies have poured tens of millions of dollars in food aid into Haiti but distributions to the affected Haitians have been slow and sometimes chaotic.

Reports of a large amount of donated food being sold on the black market have furthered provoked furor among Haitians who blame government corruption for the slack management and sluggish distribution of goods.

The Sunday demonstrations saw crowds of protesters, mainly women, march to the city hall in the Petionville neighborhood to condemn the corruption of Mayor Lydie Parent in handling relief materials.

The protest was one of the largest since the massive January 12 earthquake plowed through the small island country, killing more than 210,000 people and leaving over a million homeless.

Haitians are desperately expecting more misery as the upcoming rainy season casts dark clouds of fear upon thousands of homeless quake victims, who are living in tents with no running water or electricity.