“Many, many people are suffering from hunger and malnutrition and we are not getting enough help,” Kathryn Russell acknowledged during an interview with the American television network CBS.
The situation in Haiti is “horrendous”, it looks “right out of a scene from ‘Max Max'”, a film set in a dystopian post-apocalyptic future, UNICEF’s executive director said yesterday Sunday, as the poorest Caribbean country experiences recent weeks new surge in gang violence.
“Many, many people are suffering from hunger and malnutrition and we are not getting enough help,” Kathryn Russell acknowledged during an interview with the American television network CBS.
Haiti, especially the capital Port-au-Prince, has become the scene of rapidly escalating violence by armed gangs in recent weeks as Haitians await the formation of a transitional council following the announcement of the resignation of disputed de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henri, catalyst for the acceleration of political developments.
Kenya, which is expected to send about 1,000 police officers as part of an international security restoration mission it has offered to lead, said it was suspending their deployment but said it would intervene after a presidential transition council is formed.
Gangs control much of the country, including 80% of the capital Port-au-Prince. The brutalities of criminals—murders, rapes, kidnappings for ransom, looting…—have multiplied.
“Somehow, we have to get more control of the situation so that humanitarian aid can get in” to Haiti, Kathryn Russell said yesterday, recalling the litany of disasters that have hit the country in the last almost fifteen years: “earthquakes, cholera , COVID…’.
But the current situation “is the worst we’ve seen in decades,” he insisted.
Although the Port-au-Prince airport remains closed, the UN mission in Haiti has promised to establish an “air bridge” between the Dominican Republic and Haiti as soon as possible to facilitate the “flow of humanitarian aid.”
The capital’s main port has also been paralyzed since March 7 following “sabotage and vandalism,” according to the company that runs it, further complicating international aid deliveries.
A UNICEF container containing “supplies critical to maternal, infant and child health” was looted yesterday Saturday at the port, the United Nations Children’s Fund announced.
The development came “at a critical time when children needed it most,” UNICEF added.
Source :Skai
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