Americas

Port-au-Prince has been in the grip of armed groups for several years now, and roughly two months ago they launched coordinated attacks which paralyzed the metropolitan area. Since then, UNICEF, alongside the National Directorate for Water and Sanitation (DINEPA) and partners, has provided more than 2.6 million litres of safe drinking water to children and families across 20 sites housing those displaced. Dire conditions, disease threat The recent escalation of violence has compounded...

In recent days, demonstrations unfolding through tented encampments on school grounds – sparked by students at New York’s prestigious Columbia University who are demanding authorities divest from Israel due to its occupation and military assault on Gaza – have spread nationwide. University authorities from the west to east coast have taken different approaches, ranging from Columbia’s initial response to authorise police to clear protests by force to continuing negotiations and allowing the...

25 April 2024Humanitarian Aid The ongoing crisis in Haiti is having a “massive” and “devastating” impact, with over half the population acutely food insecure and more than one million staring at emergency levels of hunger, a senior UN World Food Programme (WFP) official said on Thursday. Haitians have been facing a multitude of challenges over the years, encompassing political, security, social and economic issues. The protracted crisis has been further exacerbated by months of brutal...

Duval Dormeus is part of a group supported by the UN Peacebuilding Fund and was first interviewed by UN News back in July 2022. The security situation has worsened in the Caribbean country since then. In the first three months of 2024, over 2,500 people have been killed or injured due to gang violence, according to the United Nations mission in the country, BINUH. Mr. Dormeus told UN News how he has managed to get by over the past two years. “I am looking at the bad state of my country. I...

“Today, it pains me to note that all speeches and callings had not avoided that some of the worst scenarios for Haiti have become realities in recent months and weeks,” said Maria Isabel Salvador, who also heads the UN mission in Haiti, BINUH. Speaking from the capital, Port-au-Prince, she said it was impossible to overstate the increase in gang activity in the city and beyond, along with the deterioration of the human rights situation and the deepening of the humanitarian crisis. Last...

13 April 2024Peace and Security UN Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed the establishment of a transitional council in Haiti tasked with choosing new political leadership and setting up elections in the crisis-torn Carribean country. In a statement issued on Saturday by his Spokesman, the UN chief welcomed the publication on Friday, 12 April of a decree formally establishing the Transitional Presidential Council, which is tasked with choosing Haiti’s next prime minister and...

“However difficult and demanding of patience, Colombia’s decision to prioritise dialogue as a principal means to resolve conflict sets the country apart as a model that is more relevant than ever in today’s world,” said Carlos Ruiz Massieu, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia. Emerging from decades of war, the Government has since made critical strides in implementing the 2016 Final Peace Agreement by advancing ongoing...

7 April 2024Law and Crime Prevention The decision by Ecuador to forcibly enter the Mexican Embassy on Saturday and arrest a former vice president of the Andean country on corruption charges represents a breach of international law, the UN Secretary-General has said. In a statement released on Saturday night, António Guterres said he was alarmed by the raid on the embassy in the capital Quito which led to the arrest of Jorge Glas. The Secretary-General “reaffirms the cardinal principle...

4 April 2024Peace and Security As a siege imposed by heavily armed gangs on Port-au-Prince, Haiti, stretches into a second month, the UN migration agency sounded an alarm on Thursday about the ever-worsening humanitarian situation. The surge of violence since February this year has reached “unprecedented levels” resulting in rampant food insecurity and multiple displacements, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). As the country grapples with this...

1. The context: lawlessness and fear Whilst the situation in Haiti has long been characterized by lawlessness, with powerful gangs controlling much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, the months of January and February 2024 have been the most violent in the last two years, with over 2,500 people killed, kidnapped or injured since the start of the year. The decision of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, in March 2024, to step down has further complicated the situation. On 21 March, Ulrike Richardson...