UN increases troop deployment in Haiti

The UN is stepping up relief efforts in Haiti. The Security Council has unanimously approved 35-hundred extra troops and police officers to intensify security. The world body wants to ensure that desperately needed aid gets to survivors.

The UN resolution adds 2,000 soldiers to the 7,000 military peacekeepers already in Haiti, and 15-hundred police to the 21-hundred-strong international force.

Advocates say the increase is essential to escort humanitarian convoys. The UN also needs more troops to secure aid delivery routes, and for a reserve force in case security worsens.

Secretary-General of the UN Ban Ki-moon speaks to media after the representatives of the fifteen members of the UN Security Council endorsed the recommendation to send 3,500 more peacekeepers to quake-striken Haiti in the UN headquarters in New York, Jan. 19, 2010. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)