Haiti heads for debt crisis as emergency loans pile up after earthquake

• IMF’s new $102m loan is criticised by charities
• UN trade and development body calls for debt write-off

A boy tries to carry rice and beans after receiving food at a distribution point in Port-au-Prince. Photograph: CARLOS BARRIA/REUTERS

Haiti is sleepwalking towards a debt crisis because international help for the earthquake-hit country is being given in the form of new loans, anti-poverty campaigners are warning.

Unctad, the United Nations’ trade and development body, which is leading international calls for the island state’s debts to be forgiven, said this weekend: “Considering the large direct costs of the earthquake, in the absence of further international action a new debt crisis is all but assured.”

Donors are agreed that the immediate priority is to get aid to Haiti’s stricken capital of Port-au-Prince, where relief co-ordinators warned this weekend that supplies of food are still woefully short, and where the threat of violence and disease is increasing by the day.

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