US Marines land in Haiti for aid mission

Thursday, February 3, 2005

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP): Fifty US Marines landed Tuesday in Gonaives, northern Haiti, on an aid mission, which is expected to last about four months, a US embassy statement said.

The Marines were dispatched from the USS Saipan, and will be "exclusively tasked to humanitarian work," the statement said.

The Gonaives-based Marines will see their numbers grow to 200 by mid-February under the mission's terms.

The soldiers will work on reconstruction projects, rebuild schools and provide clean wells for drinking water.

They will also provide medical and dental care to the local population.

Gonaives was badly damaged by heavy floods in September, on the back of an armed uprising that forced former president Jean Bertrand Aristide to flee Haiti in February of 2004.

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