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Haiti faces post-earthquake threat to security
18 January 2010
The Notre Dame de Port au Prince cathedral was destroyed. The old cemetery west of the building is being used as an ad hoc burial ground for the dead. (GeoEye)
Following the earthquake that razed large parts of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, on 17 January UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asked Haitians to be patient for international aid.
Ban was addressing growing frustration among Haitians about delays in delivering essential aid to survivors of the country's 12 January earthquake. Sporadic reports have emerged of looting, lynchings and instances of violence in several districts of the city.
There is a severe risk that any security vacuum will quickly be filled by the armed gangs that operated in the city's slums before the earthquake happened, supplemented by an estimated 3,000 criminals who escaped from the central prison during the disaster.