UNITED NATIONS – Senior officials from the United Nations and the European Union (EU) have appealed for urgent international support for Haiti, saying that the “multifaceted humanitarian catastrophe” in the country requires such a response.
A mother in Léogâne, Haiti, holds her child in a makeshift site for recently displaced people. (UNICEF/Maxime Le Lijour Photo)“What Haitians want the most is peace, that will allow them to return to school, to farm their fields, to access basic services such as going to a hospital,” said Edem Wosornu, operations and advocacy director with the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, after the team wrapped up a four-day visit to Haiti, where they saw firsthand how ongoing gang violence has upended people’s lives.
Wosornu visited Haiti alongside Lucia Elmi, director for emergency operations at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and Andrea Koulaimah, director for Latin American and the Caribbean for the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO).
As clashes continue in Haiti, the UN said more than 578,000 people are displaced, and nearly five million – roughly half the population – are facing acute hunger, with 1.6 million at risk of starvation.
Last October, the UN Security Council authorised the deployment of a Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to assist the beleaguered national police force in quelling the gang violence.
The UN said Kenya offered to lead the non-UN mission, and international media report that another 200 of its police officers have arrived in Haiti, joining some 400 already there.
The UN said the violence has crippled Haiti’s agricultural sector – a key source of income for families – and disrupted education and healthcare.
More than 900 schools have been closed since January, while in the capital, Port-au-Prince, nearly 40 per cent of all in-patient health facilities are out of service, the UN said.
Furthermore, it said families who used to be economically independent have now lost income, thus affecting their access to food and healthcare. Most that have been displaced do not know if their children will be able to return to school.
The UN said the humanitarian delegation held meetings with senior Haitian officials, including new Prime Minister Gary Conille as well as with authorities in the cities of Les Cayes and Gonaives.
The UN said they stressed that the international community must continue to support Haiti’s Government in providing life-saving aid and development assistance.
“Millions of families are yearning for an end to this relentless violence. It is critical to step up protection services for women and children – who are bearing the brunt of this crisis – and fast-track humanitarian assistance for those in need,” Elmi said.
In February, the UN and partners launched a US$674 million Humanitarian Response Plan for Haiti, but, at the midpoint of the year, it is less than a quarter funded, the UN said.
The UN and EU humanitarians warned that “the cost of inaction would be too high, if response is not scaled up now”, adding that international and local humanitarian partners have managed to find solutions to both access and assist Haitians throughout the country, despite the challenging security situation.
While underlining the vital importance of humanitarian aid, the humanitarians also stressed that Haiti’s challenges “are grounded in years of under-investment in basic social services and that humanitarian aid is a temporary fix that can’t solve the country’s deep-rooted, structural problems.”
The humanitarian response must be anchored into sustainability and serve as a “steppingstone to durable, sustainable recovery actions,” Koulaimah said.
“We call on the international community not to miss this unique momentum and to step up their efforts and mobilize resources to address the pressing humanitarian and development needs.”
