The head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Monday that 3 million Haitian children caught up in rampant gang violence are in need of humanitarian assistance, including thousands who are at risk of dying from severe malnutrition. Meanwhile, a sharp increase in the number of wounded has put enormous pressure on the few functioning hospitals in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, as they run dangerously low on medical supplies, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned.
"Each day, children are being injured or killed," Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director, told a meeting of the UN Security Council. "Some are being recruited, or they are joining armed groups out of sheer desperation."
Haiti's homicide rate has skyrocketed this year, with 2,505 people killed or injured in violence between January and March - a 53 percent increase over the last three months of 2023, making the first quarter of 2024 the most violent since the UN began tracking statistics in January 2022.
According to recent UNICEF data, between 30 and 50 percent of Haitian gangs have children in their ranks.
"Women and girls continue to be targeted with extreme levels of gender-based and sexual violence. Last year, thousands of cases of sexual violence were reported, many of which were perpetrated against children. The true number of cases is likely much higher," the UNICEF chief said.
Nearly half the population, close to 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.
Haiti relies on imports for half of its food and is facing the worst food insecurity in its history.
"Recent findings from the IPC analysis indicate an alarming 19 percent 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 UN-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 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.
The UN estimates that there are at least 362,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country, including 180,000 children and more than 150,000 women.
“Our access to the port of Port-au-Prince has been cut off because of armed groups operating in the area – leaving nearly 300 containers loaded with lifesaving humanitarian supplies stranded.,” Russell said.
The capital is now almost completely sealed off by air, sea and land blockades. As services collapse 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 continue to deliver aid when they can, despite insecurity and a massive funding gap. A $674 million UN humanitarian appeal for Haiti is only 8.1 percent funded, while an estimated 5.5 million Haitians are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection.
Haiti's UN 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."
On Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported that a sharp rise in the number of wounded has put enormous pressure on the few functioning hospitals in the capital, which are running dangerously low on medical supplies.
Armed groups have also looted and occupied several hospitals, which are now unable to function, bringing the health system to the brink of collapse. Pharmacies in the capital have been looted, making it even more difficult for people to get their medicines.
Some health facilities in the hardest-hit areas are working under severe pressure due to increased numbers of patients, and several others have been forced to close their doors due to insecurity. There is a severe shortage of medical supplies, including medicines, critical equipment, hospital beds and blood products.
“We receive a lot of patients with gunshot wounds. From February 29 to April 15, 2024, we received around 200 people with gunshot wounds,” said Dr. Paul Junior Fontilus, Executive Director of Hôpital Universitaire la Paix (HUP), the only functioning public hospital in Port-au-Prince.
“The hospital is currently saturated in terms of bed occupancy with enormous needs.”
The ICRC says the humanitarian situation in 2024 is unprecedented and has soared since gang violence escalated in late February.
“The terrible consequences of this can be seen in the enormous suffering of Haitians, particularly in the capital Port-au-Prince where several people have been killed, hundreds injured, and millions are in dire need of healthcare, clean water, food, and shelter,” said Marisela Silva Chau, the ICRC`s Head of Delegation in Haiti.
At the Security Council on Monday, Rodrigue called for the rapid deployment of the multinational support force that the Council authorized in October 2023 to assist the Haitian police. Kenya has offered to lead the non-UN force, and several countries have volunteered to contribute personnel, including Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad, Jamaica and Suriname.
The force has been plagued by delays, including legal challenges in Kenya and a shortfall in 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 have yet to be appointed, and members of the Provisional Electoral Council have yet to be named. However, gang leaders have threatened to violently disrupt the promising political process.
Haiti has been in turmoil since the July 7, 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse at his home in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petion-Ville.
Armed gangs now control or influence 90 percent of the capital and have spread to other parts of the country, where they have committed massacres, kidnappings, human trafficking, and sexual violence. An estimated 2.7 million people, including 1.6 million women and children, live in areas under effective gang control.
In early March, armed gangs launched coordinated attacks on key state infrastructure, including several police stations and two of the main prisons in Port-au-Prince, as well as educational and health facilities and religious sites.
Nearly 95,000 people have fled the capital, Port-au-Prince, due to the violence that has been raging since February 29. Fighting between gangs around the capital's international airport forced all commercial airlines to suspend operations, a situation that continues today.
The European Union (EU) has launched a humanitarian air bridge to deliver essential supplies to the population. As of Thursday, a total of five flights have arrived in Cap-Haïtien, in the north of the country. The flights came from Panama and carried up to 62 tons of medicines, emergency shelter materials, and water and sanitation supplies.
Humanitarian organizations are now establishing a logistics platform in Cap-Haïtien, where a secondary international airport and seaport remain operational. New supply lines have also been opened outside Port-au-Prince to ensure the delivery of humanitarian cargo.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell briefing to the United Nations Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Haiti, UNICEF, statement, delivered April 22, 2024
https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-executive-director-catherine-russell-briefing-united-nations-security-council
Full text: Haiti: Influx of wounded patients exacerbates needs in hospitals, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), press release, published April 21, 2024
https://www.icrc.org/en/document/haiti-influx-wounded-patients-exacerbates-needs-hospitals
Full text: Quarterly report on the situation of human rights in Haiti (January-March 2024), United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), published April 19, 2024
https://binuh.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/2024_q1_human_rights_quarterly_report_en_19.04.2024.pdf
Full text: Report of the Secretary-General, United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (S/2024/310), UN Security Council, published April 16, 2024
https://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?OpenAgent&DS=S/2024/310&Lang=E