Anger over late-coming aid in Palu as death toll rises

Police officers with automatic rifles keep guarding grocery stores and petrol stations while long queues of frustrated residents with their empty gerry cans and empty stomachs wait in the seating heat. One of them told a reporter from The Guardian: "I have survived a disaster and now I have to survive this."

Many in the queues were visibly angry, claiming that the Indonesian government doesn't care about them. A similar statement was seen spray-painted on one Palu city wall.

Residents have been blocking roads in an attempt to intercept aid deliveries while police and armed troops keep guarding shops from being looted.

Signs were propped along the roads in Sulawesi that read "We Need Food" and "We Need Support." Children begged for cash in the streets and some police officers guarding small shops even relented to allow the starving and thirsty residents to take food and water out of the stores.

A total of 62,000 people have been displaced by the twin disaster. Many others are still under rubble and trying to escape. Many are waiting in Palu's airport, trying to board military aircraft. 

The local government is passing around some rice and noodles but nothing to drink. Authorities claimed that though aid is forthcoming by land and air, many of the areas were remote and severed from the mainland, making it hard to find the victims of the disaster.

The Indonesian government did not reply to the manifest disappointment and anger of the many citizens still waiting for late-coming aid.