A HAITIAN gang leader has offered a truce and help for communities in the south-west of the earthquake-devastated  country after looting caused days of disruption to relief operations.

In a Facebook video, Jimmy Cherizier, whose alias is Barbecue, said that the G9 Revolutionary Forces and its allies will participate in the relief efforts by bringing them help.

“We invite all compatriots to show solidarity with the victims by trying to share what little there is with them,” he said.

Mr Cherizier is a powerful crime boss in the region but not the only gang leader in Haiti. There had previously been claims on social media of a gang truce, but they failed to prevent attacks on the expanding relief effort.

The death toll from the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on August 14 has now reached 2,207, according to the Civil Protection Agency.

The government said that 344 people remained missing, 12,268 people were injured and nearly 53,000 houses were destroyed by the quake.

Since the disaster, gangs have blocked roads, hijacked aid lorries, stolen supplies and kidnapped medical workers.

In hospitals, space is limited, leaving some patients on beds outside the wards and others with less serious injuries sitting on a piece of cardboard on the ground.

Accident and emergency (A&E) department worker Rousseau Hussein said that the situation in his hospital had calmed in the past week, but it continues to receive patients injured by the earthquake from outlying areas.

The hospital has been receiving support and only now had the supplies required to treat the cases he sees in A&E.

At an improvised operating theatre in a tent, a nurse preparing for surgery on a patient’s hand said that the medics worked with what they had while trying to keep conditions sterile.