Brazilian soldiers distribute food in hungry Haitian slum

The troops, members of a 9,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force, distributed rice, beans, sugar and cooking oil to 1,500 families in sprawling Cite Soleil - no small task, but a fraction of the 300,000 people estimated to live there.

Soldiers dispensed about half the 14 tons (12.7 metric tons) of rice, beans and sugar flown in by the Brazilian air force amid rioting by hungry Haitians. Another 2 tons (1.8 metric tons) of rice were purchased by the force on the island.

Residents waited patiently for hours to receive the 13-pound (6-kilogram) packages, given out under heavy security at two schools. "It’s very nice of them. I didn’t know where else I was going to get food today," said Willy Desamore, 28. But he said the package would last just a day for himself, his mother and six siblings, all unemployed.

The riots in Port-au-Prince left at least seven dead in Haiti last week and cost Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis his job. No violence was recorded in Cite Soleil, however.