PORT-AU-PRINCE: According to UNICEF, as armed conflict intensifies food shortages and a cholera outbreak, more than 115,600 Haitian children are anticipated to suffer from severe wasting due to malnutrition this year.
Compared to last year, when UNICEF recorded 87,500 children as having the disease, this number is more than 30% higher. An extreme funding shortfall, it was stated, “could put the lives of more than 100,000 children at immediate risk of death.”
In the capital Port-au-Prince, where the U.N. estimates more than 600 people were killed in April alone, heavily armed gangs have gained control of huge areas of the Caribbean island nation.
In a speech, Prime Minister Ariel Henry remarked, “The results of this study come at a crucial time because they will certainly be useful to us in planning our interventions on all fronts, in our fight against food insecurity.”
Days after the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights reiterated demands for an international force to assist Haiti in its fight against armed gangs, UNICEF released its findings. Last October, Henry’s interim administration asked for a “rapid” attack force.
The Haitian National Police, who are also expecting a further delayed order of armored vehicles from the private Canadian company INKAS, received word on Monday from the U.S. international law enforcement bureau that it had delivered the armored vehicles it had purchased for them.
However, the international world has been hesitant to send soldiers to support Henry’s unelected administration.
Meanwhile, the “Bwa Kale” movement of grassroots vigilante justice has gained strength recently, taking on gangs and carrying out summary executions, inspiring both hope and worry about the possibility of new violence.
Victor Napoletano, who works with regional non-governmental groups to oversee the International Rescue Committee’s response in Haiti, said, “We are in a context that sadly is not going to become better in the coming months.”
Kidnappings occur every day, unfortunately. Every day, bodies are turning up dead. Not just one or two, but five or ten are being reported, the speaker stated.
