UN and EU appeal for urgent support for Haiti
Senior officials from the United Nations and the European Union (EU) have appealed for urgent international support for Haiti, declaring that the “multifaceted humanitarian catastrophe” in the country requires such a response. “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 of the UN Humanitarian Affairs Office.
Wosornu visited Haiti accompanied by Lucia Elmi, director for emergency operations of 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. 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 had 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, families who used to be economically independent have now lost income, thus affecting their access to food and healthcare. The UN reported that the humanitarian delegation held meetings with senior Haitian officials, including newly-appointed Prime Minister Gary Conille and authorities in the cities of Les Cayes and Gonaives.
“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.
