Haiti

The world must act now to stem the violence and instability in Haiti, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday, appealing for simultaneous action on the humanitarian, security, and political fronts. … Mr. Guterres was speaking at UN Headquarters fresh from a visit to the country and a summit of regional leaders, held in Trinidad and Tobago, during which he participated in a special session on Haiti.

U.S. State Secretary Antony Blinken said Wednesday that a multinational force is needed to help Haiti's National Police restore order, echoing recent appeals made by U.N. officials who warn that the country's insecurity is worsening.

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Nearly three million children, the highest number on record, need humanitarian support in Haiti, where they face staggering levels of violence that have exacerbated hunger and malnutrition in a country already mired in poverty and a resurgence of deadly cholera. 

More than 115,600 children in Haiti are expected to suffer severe wasting from malnutrition this year, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF said on Thursday, as an escalation of armed violence worsens food insecurity and a cholera outbreak.

Haiti needs “urgent” support from the international community to stop the suffering of people at the hands of violent gangs who have been shooting people at random and burning them alive, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, warned on Tuesday.

Vigilante killings are surging in Haiti's capital and surrounding areas, where an additional five men were slain and set on fire Tuesday by a crowd that left one of the bodies near a police station in an upscale community.

[…] Gang violence is expanding at an alarming rate in areas previously considered relatively safe in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and outside the city, with a shocking increase in criminality and abuses, and a police force that is unable to handle the situation.

[…] Widespread insecurity and extreme violence continued to be at the forefront of the public debate as the Haitian people faced escalating levels of kidnapping and violent crimes perpetrated by gangs, including the use of rape as a weapon.

The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on Tuesday calling for the appointment of an independent rights expert on Haiti, amid mounting concern over deadly gang violence engulfing the country, threatening livelihoods, and pushing half the population into hunger. The current resolution, calling for “coordinated and targeted international action”, was sponsored by Haiti itself.