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UNICEF: 3 million children suffering brunt of Haitian gang violence
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Americas


UNICEF: 3 MILLION CHILDREN SUFFERING BRUNT OF HAITIAN GANG VIOLENCE

April 22, 2024 7:59 PM
 * By Margaret Besheer

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


FILE - A server ladles soup into a container as children line up to receive food
at a shelter for families displaced by gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti,
March 14, 2024.
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united nations — 

The head of the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, said Monday that 3 million
Haitian children impacted by rampant gang violence need humanitarian assistance,
including thousands who are at risk of death from severe malnutrition.

"Each day, children are being injured or killed," Catherine Russell told a
meeting of the U.N. Security Council. "Some are being recruited, or they are
joining armed groups out of sheer desperation."

The murder rate in Haiti has soared this year, with 2,505 people killed or
injured in violence between January and March — a 53% increase over the final
three months of 2023. Recent UNICEF data indicate between 30% and 50% of Haiti's
gangs have children in their ranks.

Nearly half the population, almost 5 million people, is acutely food insecure,
as gangs block major roads from agricultural areas to the capital, food prices
rise, and the country's main airport has been closed since March 3 because of
gang activity around it. The country relies on imports for half of its food.

"Recent findings from the IPC analysis indicate an alarming 19% increase in the
number of children projected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition in Haiti
this year," Russell said, referring to the Integrated Food Security Phase
Classification, a U.N.-backed food analysis index. "The analysis also showed
that 1.64 million people are facing emergency levels of acute food insecurity,
which increases the risk of child wasting and malnutrition."

She said the growing insecurity in the capital, Port-au-Prince, has made it
nearly impossible for critical health and nutrition supplies to reach at least
58,000 children suffering from severe wasting – the most life-threatening form
of malnutrition.

"The Martissant road, the only humanitarian corridor from Port-au-Prince to the
southern regions, remains blocked, leaving an estimated 15,000 children
suffering from malnutrition at risk of death," she said.

As services break down and clean water becomes less available, cholera has
returned and the numbers are growing, with 80,000 suspected cases.

"The situation in Haiti is catastrophic, and it grows worse by the day," Russell
said.

Aid workers are continuing to deliver when they can, despite insecurity and a
massive funding gap.

Haiti's U.N. envoy said the situation "is going from bad to worse."

On top of hunger and violence, Ambassador Antonio Rodrigue told the Security
Council that gangs are looting private companies, especially medical companies.

"This has resulted in a serious shortage of medicines and medical products,
hospital beds and blood products, including in the capital," he said. "Movement
restrictions due to insecurity and improvised roadblocks are serious obstacles
to the delivery of urgent medical equipment and medicines."

He called for the rapid deployment of the multinational support force that the
council authorized in October 2023 to support Haiti's police. Kenya has offered
to lead the non-U.N. force and several countries have offered to contribute
personnel, including Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin,
Chad, Jamaica and Suriname.

The force has been beset with delays, including court challenges in Kenya and a
shortage of funding.

In a positive development, Haiti's political process appears to be moving
forward, with the publication on April 12 and 16 of executive decrees
establishing the Transitional Presidential Council and appointing its members.
An interim prime minister and government still need to be appointed and the
Provisional Electoral Council members nominated. However, gang leaders have
threatened to violently disrupt the nascent political process.

Haiti has been in turmoil since the July 7, 2021, assassination of President
Jovenel Moise at his home in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petion-Ville. Armed
gangs now control much of the capital and have spread to other parts of the
country, where they have carried out massacres, kidnappings, human trafficking
and sexual violence.


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