Haiti, over 180,000 children are displaced within the country, 5 and a half million people, including 3 million minors, must be assisted

ROMA – “Today – says Catherine Russell, during the briefing to the UN Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Haiti – I am speaking both in my capacity as general director ofUNICEFboth as Principal Advocate on the humanitarian situation in Haiti for the United Nations Interagency Permanent Committee. The situation in Haiti is catastrophic and worsening day by day. Five and a half million people, including 3 million children – or 2 in 3 children across the country – are in need of humanitarian assistance. In many areas – added Russell – essential services have collapsed, while people are losing access to food and drinking water. In some communities life is more dangerous than ever.”

The crisis in Haiti is ultimately a protection crisis. Years of political turmoil and devastating economic conditions have led to the proliferation of armed groups. Today, an estimated 2.7 million people, including 1.6 million women and children, live in areas under their effective control. When I last visited Haiti, I saw firsthand how violence and fear are tearing at the very fabric that binds families and communities. Every day, children are injured or killed. Some are recruited or join armed groups out of sheer desperation. Recent data fromUNICEF indicate that between 30% and 50% of Haiti’s armed groups currently have children in their ranks.

Women and girls targeted by gangs. Women and girls continue to be targeted with extreme levels of sexual and gender-based violence. Thousands of cases of sexual violence were reported last year, many of them against children. The real number of cases is probably much higher. So far in 2024, the violence has continued and even intensified. Since the beginning of the year, more than 2,500 people have been killed, injured or abducted… and the United Nations has verified more than 400 serious violations of children’s rights. At the same time, families continue to be displaced by violence. We estimate that more than 180,000 children are currently displaced within the country.

The main streets of the capital are blocked. Armed groups have also blocked major communication routes from Port-au-Prince to the rest of the country, destroying livelihoods and limiting access to services. As armed groups gain more and more territory, neighborhoods create barricades and self-defense groups to defend themselves from violence. The result is that hundreds of thousands of children and their families living in besieged communities are largely cut off from humanitarian aid and essential services.

The origins of the food crisis. This combination of life-threatening conditions has caused a growing food security and nutrition crisis, especially for children. Recent IPC analysis findings indicate an alarming 19% increase in the number of children expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition in Haiti this year. The analysis also showed that 1.64 million people are facing emergency levels of acute food insecurity, which increases the risk of child malnutrition. The IPC report finds that, in 2022, approximately 258 million people in 58 countries and territories faced acute food insecurity at crisis levels or worse, compared to 193 million people in 53 countries and territories in 2021. This is the highest number in the report’s seven-year history.

Health supplies are impossible and cholera has reappeared. At the same time, insecurity in Port-au-Prince has made it virtually impossible for health and nutrition supplies to reach at least 58,000 children affected by severe acute malnutrition in the metropolitan area. The Martissant road, the only humanitarian corridor from Port-au-Prince to the southern regions, remains blocked, leaving around 15,000 children affected by malnutrition at risk of death. To make the situation worse, cholera has re-emerged, with over 80,000 cases, plunging the country into a situation of crisis and uncertainty.

300 containers blocked by the gangs. The violence is also compromising the work of humanitarian workers on the ground. Access to the port of Port-au-Prince has been cut off due to armed groups operating in the area, leaving nearly 300 containers loaded with life-saving humanitarian supplies stranded. These included 17 UNICEF containers containing nutritional supplements, as well as neonatal, maternal and medical supplies. Port-au-Prince is now almost completely isolated due to air, sea and land blockades.

But the children are reached anyway. But despite the risks and operational complexity, international humanitarian organizations and local partners continue to reach the most vulnerable children and families with life-saving services, respond to the cholera outbreak and support mobile child protection teams.