Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), called on X (old twitter) to end the carnage in Haiti "Alarming reports from #Haiti where escalating violence killed and injured over 70 people in Port au Prince in the last two weeks. So far this year, more than 2,500 people have been killed and almost 1,000 have been injured. This carnage needs to stop."

More than 10,000 people have been displaced in the past two weeks alone and have sought refuge in more than 20 spontaneous sites and with host families. Nearly 200,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, a tenfold increase in two years. As population displacement intensifies, forced repatriations of vulnerable Haitians from neighboring countries have quadrupled compared to 2022.

Human rights violations have been reported, including kidnappings, lynchings as well as sexual violence against women and girls.

Despite access challenges, humanitarian partners stepped in and provided hygiene and dignity kits, hot meals and water. Mobile clinics have been rolled out to ten sites so far. Psychosocial and medical support and emergency shelter were provided to nearly 500 people at risk of GBV and more than 1,200 women and girls benefited from sexual and reproductive health services.

The humanitarian community calls on all actors in the crisis to put an immediate end to the violence. Haitians cannot continue to live locked in their homes, unable to feed their families, find work and live with dignity. The children cannot go to school. The world must act now to prevent further atrocities.

Remember that nearly half of the Haitian population needs humanitarian and food aid. The $720 million Humanitarian Response Plan for Haiti is only 26% funded…

HL/ HaitiLibre