WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The US military will wrap up its formal earthquake relief mission in Haiti on June 1, although some assistance will continue beyond that date, a US military official said yesterday.
Immediately after the catastrophic January 12 earthquake that Haiti’s government says may have killed more than 300,000 people, President Barack Obama ordered thousands of US soldiers and aid workers to spearhead relief efforts.
The mission saw a peak of about 22,000 military personnel, most of them stationed on ships offshore, but the force now stands at just 2,200, according to Lieutenant General Ken Keen, who stepped down as head of Joint Task Force Haiti on Sunday.
Keen, briefing reporters at the Pentagon, said the remaining troops under Joint Task Force Haiti would be withdrawn from the impoverished Caribbean state by June 1.
“I anticipate us being able to close down the Joint Task force. That does not mean that US Southern Command will not continue to have an enduring military presence,” he said, referring to the US military’s division responsible for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Keen pointed to some 500 members of the Louisiana National Guard who will arrive before June 1 and remain in the country through September to provide humanitarian assistance.
“The security situation still remains calm as it’s been, fortunately, since the early days,” Keen said.
“While there’ve been isolated incidents of violence, if you will, it has not been to the degree that it has impacted at all on our ability to provide humanitarian assistance.”
International aid workers are struggling to care for more than 1 million homeless Haitian quake survivors and warn that imminent rains, and the hurricane season starting on June 1, could cause another humanitarian catastrophe.
